The Science of Mystery (Mischief's Destiny 1)
by Crosslit.Heavens
Summary: Austin got her love of mythology from her scientist father, Erik. What she didn't get was a warning. Landing in New Mexico, Austin is thrown into a plot involving a Cube, a secret government agency, and a man who might just be the god of mischief himself. Loki/OC COMPLETE
1. Chapter One: Old and Worn Memories

**Hello, readers! Thank you for clicking on this story. Before we start, a few notes...**

**One: I obviously don't own any of the Marvel characters, which are owned by, well, Marvel - though I wish I did own Loki, because he's just so interesting. I do however own my OC, and anything pertaining to her, and any other OCs that may pop up in later chapters. **

**Two: This fiction is based on the Thor MOVIE. I haven't ever read the comics (though I would like to), so if there is anything that wasn't in the movie that was in them (which I'm sure there is) I'm sorry.**

**Three: This fiction takes place post-Thor, pre-Avengers. More on that later...**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

><p><span>The Science of Mystery<span>

_Chapter One: Old and Worn Memories_

Austin didn't know what she was expecting as she pulled up to the small, white trailer, located in a small little town in New Mexico, USA.

Maybe she'd been expecting to see her father, Erik Selvig, scientist who spent too much time on his work, there waiting for her. Or maybe she'd been expecting the trailer to be bigger, more luxurious – or for her father to live in a _house_, where they wouldn't be cramped for space. Or maybe she'd even been expecting the town where her father lived to be a bit bigger, a bit more exciting and lively.

Maybe she'd been _hoping_ that her father would meet her and say that he was okay, that she could go home, that she didn't need to stay.

But, whatever Austin had been hoping, somewhere in the recesses of her mind, she certainly didn't get it as she parked the black Jeep she'd rented in front of the small little place, feeling her heart sink even further in her chest as she thought about what she was up against.

"Not even here," Austin muttered as she turned the Jeep off and took the keys from the ignition, glad that it was still light out, since the banged-up trailer didn't seem to have a porch-light attached to it – not that she'd been expecting one. "Not even present. I can't believe he forgot," Austin sighed heavily as she looked into the Jeep's mirror, seeing blue eyes stare back at her, wanting to start tearing.

Truthfully, she _could_ believe it. She'd known it was coming, had known that her father would forget that he was supposed to meet her, since most of the time, he seemed to forget she even existed.

Not that it was entirely his fault.

Austin felt another sigh leave her as she wiped away the tears she refused to shed, brushing her curly, auburn bangs from her face. She reached for the phone lying in her purse as she pushed the Jeep's door open and clambered out, suppressing a shiver as the cold air hit her.

She didn't know why she'd been expecting it to be hot in New Mexico, near the desert – it wasn't like anything else during her trip had gone according to plan.

Ride to the airport: traffic. Checking in for her flight: unexpected fees. Searching for her flight: layover and plane switch. Said airplane flight: cramped, smelling, and sitting next to a guy who looked like he'd had one too many beers. Arrival in New Mexico: nearly a day late, with all but her carry-on bag missing, lost somewhere in flight transition. Car rental: much too expensive.

Arrival at her father's "home": he had forgotten her again.

Austin held the phone to her ear with one hand and grabbed her purse and carry-on bag with another as she inspected the trailer with frowning glances. The thing her father called home was maybe the size of three Jeep's, with slightly peeling paint, and drawn curtains. On one end she suspected there was a kitchen – probably small and cramped as well – and on the other end, she could see something that looked like it might be a bedroom.

Austin silently prayed that her father had had the decency to clear the bedroom out for her use as the phone rang in her ear– he was obviously never home, and he'd always slept on the couch, anyway.

The phone rang a few more times, and then went to voicemail, her father's voice reciting a curt "leave me a message" before the phone beeped in her ear again. Austin fought the urge to swear at him, both annoyed and angry that he wasn't picking up, as well, though she didn't want to admit it, slightly hurt.

"Hey, dad, I'm..." she chewed on her lip as she glanced at the trailer, trying to think of what to say. She didn't want to yell at him – not now, when she'd just arrived; she'd didn't want to start another argument, since they seemed to have so many. "I'm in front of your trail – er, _house_. You were supposed to meet me, remember?" Austin let out yet another sigh as she looked at the sky, which was slowly darkening.

"My flight came in late, so I figured you'd already be here. I guess you forgot," Austin had to fight to keep the contempt out of her voice on that note. "Anyway, call me back, alright? I'll be waiting out front," Austin paused a moment as she looked down from the sky to the dusty ground, before reciting the farewell she had always given him. "P.S, dad, this is Austin...and I still love you," the call was ended as soon as the words left her mouth, and Austin walked over to the front steps of the trailer and sat down, setting her purse and carry-on bag beside her.

Austin could scarcely remember the last time she'd actually seen her dad in the flesh, but as her goodbye echoed in her mind, she thought back, remembering the happier times the two of them had had. The goodbye itself was an echo from a Country song, the "main character" of which was a girl who was also named Austin.

As Austin closed her eyes, she could see it – the time before her father had been insanely busy, when he'd still been convinced that she needed him. It had been before her parent's divorce, before her father had delved himself head-on into his work, before any of the chaos in her life had started. Back then, she'd had a real family, and though her dad had never liked it, they'd even listened to Country, laughing when the song containing her name played on the radio.

But things weren't like that anymore. Her mother had moved on, her father had found something else to love, and though she still spoke to them, Austin couldn't help but feel like her life had been put on pause, caught somewhere in the middle of things...

Austin traded her sighs for tears as she tucked her legs close to her chest and tipped her head, one lonely sob echoing as her forehead found her knees.

* * *

><p>Scientist Erik Selvig felt shaky yet elated as he opened the door to his SUV, hurrying to slide into the driver's seat and close the door behind him before he lost his balance, footing, or ability to breathe.<p>

He couldn't believe it, the thing he had just seen. It was still pulling at the edges of his mind, still fascinating him, though it was now gone from his vision. As he hurriedly closed his eyes, pulling in a shaky breath, he could see it floating in his mind's eye – glowing, dangerous yet alluring, a secret to which he was privy to, a secret that he knew.

The Cube.

He truthfully didn't know what else to call it, because as sure as he knew, it didn't actually have a name. But considering what it was, he didn't feel like it needed one, either. It was an object that could exist without being called something, that may have been too powerful to be termed with a simple word.

But still, he would call it the Cube...for identification purposes only.

Erik fought to control his erratic breathing as he started his SUV and put it in drive, pulling slowing out of the car garage's parking spot. He still found it a wonder that there even _was_ a car garage in his little town, but he guessed with S.H.E.I.L.D. around, he shouldn't have been surprised. The strange, secret government agency didn't seem to be limited on funds or on property, considering they'd been able to set up a base in his town almost immediately after the..._incident_ that had occurred there recently.

Erik was almost back to his normal self as he headed towards the exit of the parking garage, glad to see some sunlight at last, though images of the strange, glowing Cube still flickered through his mind. He reached forward to turn up the radio, wanting to wish the thoughts away until he could get home, focus on them, but his fingers had barely brushed the dial when suddenly the SUV exited the parking garage, sunlight bathing it immediately.

And as soon as there was sunlight, _he_ appeared, sitting in the passenger's seat, as if he'd been conjured straight from the darkness.

"Well, you seem to be quite taken with the new development," he said in a sentence of perfect articulation, a small, smug smile on his pale face.

Erik didn't turn to look at him, fought again to control his breathing – and every other signal he was giving off, anything that might have told Loki about his uneasiness, his anxiety, his fear, or his glee over the new "development".

He was having to do a lot of that these days – try and control his emotions, his body language. Because though he had agreed to side with Loki, Norse god of mischief, freely, sometimes he saw his decision as more of a mistake.

But how could he not? He was more than willing to admit to himself that he didn't fully trust Loki. And how could he be expected to trust him, when Loki always seemed to be watching, waiting, searching for some advantage he might have, for some mistake that was made, for something that he could use to his advantage?

He'd done that, since the moment they had met.

_Guess it's really more of my fault, then. _Erik thought as he internally sighed, wanting to stop and rub his temples, his head starting to hurt from the turmoil that lay in him. _Guess I should have never agreed to this..._

But, when he thought about what he had agreed to, his worry seemed to drift away. After all, a life without problems sounded like a nice thing. Critical acclaim over a science he himself had proven sounded like a nice thing. And if he were rich and famous, he wasn't going to complain. Maybe if things worked the way they were supposed to, he'd finally catch up to his ex-wife...

Erik really did sigh then, cutting a turn too hard, after which he received a pointed glance from Loki. Just as he'd fought with his breathing and fought with his emotions, he then fought with his reasoning.

He couldn't be doing this. He couldn't be rethinking things. It wasn't like he could back out of the deal, suddenly decide that he wasn't willing to side with the god of mischief. That would most likely mean death, and he'd lose the possibility of all of the things he'd been dreaming of.

No, he couldn't afford to back down. This time, his life depended on it.

"Yeah, well, like you said, I think it could use some looking into – the Cube," Erik finally found his voice as the SUV moved through the town, and he winced ever so slightly as he saw it: the remains of buildings, the blackness from the fires, the people rebuilding what had once been successfully flourishing.

The fight. He remembered it. He remembered how it had played out, how Thor had saved them all, and he regretted his decision yet again.

What was he_ doing_?

_Recognition. _Erik reminded himself as he stole a glance at Loki, who was now looking out the window at the chaos he himself had created with the Destroyer, another smug, nearly dangerous smile playing on his lips. But then the smile turned into an ugly frown, and he looked away, glancing at Erik again sharply, as if realizing his mistake.

And Erik was sure he knew what the mischief god had been thinking about. He was sure that his thoughts had roamed towards his brother, Thor, who was still alive, who had beaten him (or so Erik liked to think, since Loki would only say that he had decided to leave Asgard to incite revenge on his brother, who had thoroughly wronged him, making all the mortals believe that he was the one who had been wronged in turn, when he'd actually been banished – and for good reason).

But Erik was glad that Thor was still alive – if for no one else but Jane, who had been both a walking shadow and a fiercely working scientist since he'd disappeared.

Erik found himself wishing then that everyone would win – that Loki would somehow get his revenge without killing his brother, that Thor would come back, and that he would get his recognition. Then he immediately abandoned this hope, knowing that it would never happen, not in the real, physical world.

"I assume your study is to be conducted immediately," Loki's words almost made Erik jump, his SUV drifting quickly to the edge of the road before he righted it. He didn't miss the acidic tone in Loki's voice, showing his disdain for any "study" that mortals may have conducted.

Erik shook his head and smiled good-naturedly. He wasn't about to argue and make Loki angry. He already knew that the Asgardians were advanced well beyond the "mortals" like him, and that some of them (a.k.a. Loki) didn't have qualms about stating it.

"Yes, the study should be started soon. Probably," Erik saw Loki's green eyes drift to him sharply when he said the word "probably", no doubt measuring the truth of his statement. "Fury said that Jane will be debriefed after she accepts the assignment – _if_ she accepts it, which I'm sure she will," he turned another turn on that note, frowning.

He was more than sure that Jane would accept, probably seeing the Cube as another step towards finding and/or reaching Thor.

"Jane," the name dripped off of Loki's silver tongue placidly, and Erik felt something inside of him shrink. "You are referring to my _brother's_ Jane, am I correct?" he looked stonily thoughtful as he directed the question at Erik, expression like a simple mask.

Erik swallowed once before nodding. He didn't like to say much about Jane, afraid that if he did, Loki may do something to her – not that he could stop the god if that was what he'd decided to do, anyway; after all, how could he possibly go up against someone who was _magic_?

Erik suspected Loki was about to say more on the subject, perhaps deftly pick his brain for more information, when suddenly an annoying beep rang out through the SUV, Erik's phone signaling that he was being called. Erik glanced down at his phone, ignoring Loki's slightly annoyed look at the sound of the mortal technology, puzzled that anyone would be calling him.

Jane was no doubt working late at the lab, as she always did, and wouldn't call him until late that night, when she decided that she'd had enough, and was going to drift off to sleep – that or she would call him if there were an emergency, or if she found some amazing new discovery, both of which Erik highly doubted would occur. Darcy never called him at all, unless she brainlessly pressed the wrong name on her contact list, and he had just left the presence of S.H.I.E.L.D., so he doubted that they would be calling him...

Erik felt his throat nearly close in on him as he saw the name listed.

_Austin_.

His mind traveled miles away in an instant, to his trailer, where his daughter would now be, waiting on him. He'd completely forgotten about her visiting him, staying with him for a few months. He'd completely forgotten that she existed that day, in fact, so wrapped up in his life's recent events.

And he felt horrible for it – terribly, awfully horrible.

It wasn't like he'd meant to forget about Austin. He loved his daughter dearly, still saw her as his little girl, though she was now almost twenty-one. And though he rarely had time to spare, he always tried to make time to talk to her at least, wanting to know how her life was going.

He'd been excited about the prospect of her coming to stay with him, in the beginning, sometimes around Thor's arrival. He'd prepared things for them to do – what could be done in his small, little town. He'd even planned on showing her his research, knowing that, though she wasn't a scientist like he'd _wanted_ her to be, she would no doubt be interested.

But all of that had washed down the drain the moment that Loki had appeared before him, with that small, mischievous smile of his. All he'd been worried about was his new life, his new plans, the things that he had to keep straight.

His research. His work. S.H.I.E.L.D. Jane. The Cube.

And Loki.

Most definitely Loki - who he was both awed by, and terrified of.

Erik was about to say something to Loki, try and give him some excuse as to why he should leave him alone for the night and not bother him with any more questions, wanting to finding a quick, safe way to send Austin home before the dangerous god found out about her, when suddenly, he heard it – a voice, coming from his phone.

His voicemail was playing.

"I do believe you have a message," Loki told Erik in an almost innocent voice then, as if he were doing Erik a favor by pressing the voicemail's button.

Since coming to Earth (or Midgard, if you wanted to be technical about it), Loki had learned more than a few things about technology from Erik, who now regretted teaching him how to access his phone's voicemail.

Erik tried to think of a way to cut off the message as he looked down at his phone, feeling fear creep into him. He didn't want to simply end the call – that would have seemed suspicious – but then again, he didn't want Loki knowing about Austin, either. It was a miracle she had stayed a secret from him for this long.

Erik could come up with no plan, however, and so Austin's deflated voice rang out through the SUV.

"_Hey, dad, I'm..." _Erik felt sick when he heard her voice, though a small part of him was glad. _"I'm in front of your trail – er, house. You were supposed to meet me this afternoon, remember?" _Erik snuck a glance at Loki as the message played on, seeing the dark-haired god staring at his phone intently, as if lost in thought. _"My flight came in late, so I figured you'd already be here. I guess you forgot. Anyway, call me back, alright? I'll be waiting out front," _Erik let out a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding when Austin's voice disappeared, glad that she hadn't recited her goodbye as normal, then –

"_P.S, dad, this is Austin, and – " _

Austin's voice disappeared quickly as Erik stopped in the middle of traffic and reached down, pressing the "end call" button on his phone, finding that he was panting.

No. No. No. No. No.

_No_!

This was awful! How could he have let this happen? How could he have let Loki find out about Austin? How could he have been so stupid? Why hadn't he tried to act differently, tried not to panic?

He couldn't believe that he'd put his daughter in danger like this.

"You have a daughter," Loki said the words in an off-hand tone, though Erik could sense the malice underneath. "You failed to tell me that."

Erik laughed as the car behind him honked, and he rolled down the window, waving an apology, before he began to drive again. "Yeah," he said, trying to be nonchalant about it, as if it didn't matter to him, trying to downplay the panic attack he had just had. "I forgot she was coming. She's only staying for the weekend. I'll be glad when she's gone," he even added an extra sigh at the end, trying to make his farce believable.

But one look in Loki's direction told him that he hadn't succeeded, because the god was staring at him, a small look of triumph on his normally calm face.

"The weekend, you say?" he asked, as if he hadn't heard Erik right. "Sad she won't be with you longer," Erik was sure he was going to be sick as he stopped at a light, turning to look Loki full in the face.

Erik had to admit that, sometimes, Loki looked almost inhuman – too pale, with hair too dark, with features too finely chopped. Sometimes, Erik didn't even think he looked Asgardian, didn't look anything like Thor, his brother, even though they were related. All in all, he really thought Loki looked more like a statue – handsome and real in a cold, unmoving sort of way.

Erik swallowed the lump that had risen in his throat, completely ignoring the light as it turned green – the interfering god's seemingly favorite color – finding himself blurting out: "She can't know who you are!"

He didn't know why this was the first thing he said in Austin's defense, but it was. Perhaps he said it because he knew that, no matter how much he begged, there was no way that Loki would stay completely away from Austin – not when she might prove to be a handhold over Erik, might prove to be useful, or at the least, _entertaining_. But he knew that, if he could keep the truth of who Loki really was away from Austin then...maybe she'd be safer?

At least, she wouldn't go _looking_ for any trouble that way.

"Why ever not?" Loki's smile curved at the tips as he challenged Erik, who suddenly doubted he would win, the cars that wanted to move honking behind him, earning him more bad driver points. "I informed you of who I was from the start, and our relationship has been sound so far."

Erik wracked his brain, then said: "B-Because, you're not _human_," he saw Loki raise one thin, black eyebrow, obviously not satisfied with that, and he tried again, finally moving forward on the road. His nerves were getting the best of him, and he knew it. "Because, it's one more person knowing that you're here, one more person that could lead S.H.I.E.L.D. to you," Erik turned his eyes back to the read, not wanting to see Loki's green, unsettling gaze, hoping that this information worked.

Truth be told, he wasn't sure whether Loki was afraid of S.H.I.E.L.D. or not – though he sincerely doubted it. He knew that the organization was looking for the god, and he knew that for now, Loki was hiding himself from them, but he had no evidence to state whether or not he cared whether he was found.

Erik didn't think it would be long before Loki revealed himself to S.H.I.E.L.D., though – though he was sure that he'd disappear right after. He didn't seem afraid or anything. Maybe it was because without Thor there, on Earth, there was really no one to challenge him, which made him powerful – and he _knew_ it. That, and, Erik had realized, Loki seemed to have a complex about being noticed...

Despite his want to not look in Loki's direction, Erik found himself glancing that way, catching Loki's slightly amused look as he did. "When I find a problem, Doctor, I erase it," the mischief-maker said in a tone that was almost condescending, almost a warning. "However, you may actually be right in this case. So for now...I believe I will play your little game. It may even be amusing," Erik felt an anger bubble stir in him when he heard that, but clamped it down, opting for an accepting smile instead.

At least Loki was being cooperative, though he was sure it had a more sinister ring than simply "amusing". Erik knew he was in too deep for "amusing".

In fact, he was just in too deep, and now he had dragged Austin in with him – Austin, who had her whole life ahead of her...or maybe not, if Loki had anything to do with it, since he didn't seem to be particularly fond of "mortals".

Erik made a pact with himself as he turned down another rode, the one leading to his home. He would do everything in his power to keep Austin safe – would, in two days, by the end of the weekend, send her home, where Loki would still be able to reach her, but where she would at least be further away. He would do everything he could to give Austin something he had been depriving her of for a long time – _hope_.

He would give her hope, even if all he did was keep her alive.

"So," Erik asked as he turned down his last street, this one bumpy and gravely, his trailer resting only a half a mile ahead. He turned his gaze towards Loki, who minutely raised an eyebrow at him. "What do you think of the name _Steve_?"

Erik saw Loki shoot him a small glare and an ugly frown before he suddenly vanished, and Erik turned his head back to the road, seeing his trailer almost immediately.

* * *

><p>Austin took a deep breath as she reached for the latch to her father's trailer's door, pulling it...grimacing as the door suddenly opened, swinging towards her creakily.<p>

_Of course_. She didn't know why she hadn't thought of it before. If her father was nothing else, he was always absentminded – at least, he was when it came to things that didn't involve science, like remembering to pay his bills, remembering to meet his daughter the day she arrived in town, and locking the door to his small excuse for a home.

Austin took another deep breath as she turned and grabbed her bags, before throwing them over her shoulder and entering the little abode, closing the heavy metal door behind her, smelling something distinctly stale. It had been perhaps ten minutes since she had called her dad, though to her, it honestly seemed like it had been an eternity. Austin set her bags down by the small couch as she took a look around, feeling her heart sink with every new glance.

"Mom was right," Austin said to herself as she took in the trailer's contents – a mess of things that were scattered, broken, wrinkled, old, or just plain dirty. She bypassed a stack of trash, falling out of its bag, as she made her way over to the kitchenette, hoping she could rummage around for a drink. "I guess it_ is _a good thing that I decided to come..." she bit her lip on that note as she opened up the trailer's mini-fridge, finding too-old takeout bins, a disgusting selection of beers, and a few water bottles, one of which she grabbed.

Her mother had been overly insistent that she come visit her father, spend some quality time with him, and now Austin new why.

There was obviously something _wrong_ with him, though she had no idea what. Busy or not, forgetful or not, his place shouldn't have been such a mess, and he shouldn't have been forgetting the important things – like coming to meet her at his "house".

Austin shook her head as she glance around another time, trying to decide where to begin. She unscrewed the top of the water bottle she held and nearly downed the whole thing before she turned, deciding to start with the closest space – the "kitchen".

In the "kitchen" Austin found all sorts of things – too-old food, too many dishes that were beyond her ability to scrub clean, and more than a few dead and alive bugs. And once the "kitchen" was clean, she moved onto the "living room", finding things that needed to be put away, laundry that needed to be stuffed into a hamper and taken to the laundry mat, and rearranging what she assumed her father considered his "desk" (though honestly it was a small, booth-like table located near the kitchen's entryway). Austin made her way into the bedroom last, pulling her bags along and depositing them there, but found, with astonishment, that the achingly small bedroom wasn't even dirty – in fact, it didn't look as if her father had ever _touched_ it.

_Does he sleep on the couch? _Austin wondered as she sat her bags down on the bed, which all but engulfed the tiny little room, finding a minute little laptop space sitting next to the room's window, which put a smile on her face. _He must come home and crash..._

But that wasn't _normal_, was it? She knew he was an important scientist, and that he had amazing, life-altering work that he dealt with, but...surely he had to have had a life on top of all of that?

Though, if Austin thought back through the past ten years, she realized something – he _didn't_ have a life, probably hadn't had one since that horrible day, when her parents had finally ended things.

And though she could hope that her father's overly-focused schedule was simply a way to cope with the loss of his family, she highly doubted it. He still spoke to her mom, and he scorned the profession she had chosen to place herself in – she didn't think he even _missed_ them.

At least, not enough. Otherwise, he would have been at the airport to pick her up, or at least had the decency to meet her, or call her back...

Austin nearly jumped as her pocket vibrated suddenly, her phone ringing, signaling that someone was calling, wanting to talk to her. Her pulse racing, she pulled the phone from her pocket, a small smile wanting to stretch across her face, but when she looked down, she found herself disappointed.

It wasn't her father. Not by a long shot.

Austin huffed as she made her way to the trailer's old-fashioned, checkered couch, pushing aside a stack of thick, hardcover books, the only thing she hadn't put away yet. She let herself relax as she sank into the cushions, pressing the "accept" button on her phone, adjusting her zip-up jacket so that her arms were free.

Austin took a breath to answer, but a voice, smirking and smiling, responded from the other end before she could even speak.

"So, sold a million copies of that book yet?" a slightly snarky, male voice asked, and despite her disappointment at her father not calling, Austin couldn't help but smile at the question.

"No, I haven't, Tony," she replied as she began to twirl a lock of her hair, noticing a few split ends. She then rolled her eyes. "I haven't even _finished_ the book, let alone _released_ it."

Austin felt her smile spread as she imagined the face of her friend, and the grin that would no doubt be on it. She then wondered why he hadn't used his phone-cam, why she wasn't seeing his face. Maybe he was on the phone when he shouldn't have been? It certainly wouldn't have been the first time he'd been reckless...

"Really? Slacking is not a good trait to have – trust me, I should know," Austin laughed as Tony continued on, refusing to let her off the hook just yet. In the background, she could hear a strange sort of rustling, whooshing, maybe something moving. "By my account, you should already be even more famous than me," he said in a tone that suggested he was both happy and a little affronted by the idea.

Austin's laugh picked up its pace as she tried to imagine this, finding that she couldn't.

"I don't know anyone who could be more famous than the Iron Man," Austin quieted her laugh to say seriously, finding that she meant it.

Most people were shocked when they learned that Austin knew and talked with Tony Stark, a.k.a. Iron Man, but to her, the idea felt normal – comforting, even. She had known Tony for nearly ten years now, and though he was a bit of a sadist, was sarcastic, and sometimes gave her more trouble than what he was worth, he was also the best friend that she had – maybe even the _only_ friend.

"Alright, so tell me the truth, how have you been?" Austin felt her muscles tense ever so slightly as Tony's voice turned uncharacteristically serious, like a lead weight had just been dropped into her chest cavity. "Your father, have you seen him yet?" Austin noticed that Tony's voice was strangely cold when he mentioned her father, though he was obviously trying to hide it.

Austin's throat felt thick as she adjusted the phone in her hand, barely managing to reply with a dead-weight: "No".

"Really," the answer wasn't a question, but a statement, and then even Tony sighed into the phone. "You know, I still can't seem to figure out why your parents divorced in the first place. I understand the idea that marriage is a cage," Austin felt her lips crack into a smile as the snide remark, though her eyes were again starting to tear up. "but from what I hear, your mother talks to him nearly every day. Am I just naïve, or is that normal for an un-married, divorced, supposed to be I-can't-stand-you relationship?"

Despite herself, Austin let out a small laugh, though it sounded more like a cough and a choke than a laugh because of her closed throat, and the tears that were welling.

Truth be told, she didn't know why her parents were divorced, either, because Tony was right – they talked to each other nearly every day, they always knew what was going on in their ex-spouse's life, and though her mother would never admit it, Austin knew that she still cared for her dad.

Which was why she had sent Austin to go see him when his phone calls had begun to sound...strange, when he had begun to sound a little bit too nervous, too excited, and then, suddenly, almost like he was secretly terrified.

"You know, if you get sick of that guy you call 'dad', there's always a free bunk at my place," Austin managed to laugh for real this time as she wiped the just-shed tears from her eyes, feeling pitiful that she was crying.

She knew that, despite who the invitation was coming from, that Tony was serious.

Her parents had been divorced for ten years, suddenly deciding, as if overnight, that they were not suited for one another, and that they couldn't stand being married. When the divorce papers had gone through, Austin had been almost eleven, and her mother had been given custody over her. And then, four and a half months after the divorce had been finalized, her mother had remarried again.

This man, however, had not been a scientist. He had, instead, been an insanely rich man, who her mother had somehow managed to hook – probably from her stunning, insane, nearly super-model good looks (none of which she had passed onto Austin, who felt she was rather plain, just like her father). Despite being the slippery type, her mother's new husband had wanted a wife and a kid – even if only for publicity purposes.

The two had been married, and the man had survived maybe a year before he'd suddenly been shot, leaving his "poor" widow and adopted child behind – with enough riches to last them for the rest of their lives, and probably even a few lives after that.

Austin's mother had done the right thing by the business world once she'd gotten her hands on her late husband's money. She'd gone to high-end functions and demonstrations, and there she had met Tony Stark, self-certified (and self-centered) genius and playboy, and had decided to devote a good sum of her money into his company. The two had formed a business alliance at first, and then had become good, if not strange, friends, which had led to Tony becoming one of Austin's friends as well.

And Tony had changed over the years, just as Austin had – especially after he'd become the Iron Man, which had given his life a fast, quick, spinning U-turn. And though he was still a bit of a playboy, Austin knew that he truly cared, and that if she asked, he would do everything he could to help her, even if it meant putting up with her for weeks, or months, or years if he had to.

"Thanks for the invite, Mr. Hero, but I think I'll pass," Austin turned back to smiling and away from crying as she looked around the small little trailer again, glad that it was cleaner now. "This isn't exactly where I want to be right now, but I think my dad actually _needs_ me this time," the words felt good rolling off of her tongue, and she tried to believe them.

After all, her dad loved her – she _knew_ that – but their relationship had been so shaky as of late, she had begun to think that he'd never _need_ her again, never want her around, never want anything more than to talk to her on the phone, and only then because he had to (or her mother would kill him).

But this time, it really did seem like he needed her there, to help him. And even if he didn't, she was worried. There was something strange going on...

Though she had no idea what, still.

"Fine, it's your self-induced funeral," Tony relented as the noise echoing in the background of his phone became louder, and he sighed in an almost put-out sort of way. "Well, Austin, you know I would love chat longer, but unfortunately, I have to punch in my time again. Don't be slacking on that book – when it comes out next week, I want to read it, and con everyone I know into buying one – which is a lot of people, so you should be quickly famous, as I said. And maybe next time, you could write about something better than aliens and space and time-warps...you know, something modest, maybe to do with the Iron Man..." he laughed at that, and Austin cracked another smile.

Obviously, Tony was headed somewhere _as_ Iron Man, and was calling her from the "road". It must have been nice to lift off into the air and fly wherever you wanted, to travel almost instantly...

"I'll talk to you again soon, Tony, and I'll _work_ on the book – though I can't promise any metal superheros in it," Austin relented, pulling the phone from her ear as Tony hung up, leaving her stranded, alone at her father's trailer.

She knew that Tony (and her mother) were excited about the book she was going to publish, but she hardly wanted to think about it. She'd wanted to be a writer all her life, and now that self-publishing was getting big, she'd decided to try that route to literary fame, not wanting to mooch off of her mother's money forever (even if her mother didn't mind, and pretty much insisted). And she'd had a plot in place, and characters, and even a title, but then...

She didn't know what, but _something_ had happened. It had been after a conversation with her father, who was expressly against her becoming a fiction author, who had always wanted her to become a real, living, breathing scientist, like him. He'd all but yelled at her when he'd found out that she was "wasting her life and talent" on a silly thing like writing science-_fiction_, and since then, she hadn't been able to pen a single page.

Not that she had to have her father's approval – though she_ did _want it. She was an adult now, though no one seemed to want to treat her like one, all of them still thinking of her as that poor, young child who had seen her parents split, her mother marry another man, and who had been thrust into a life of fortune, which, despite its many luxuries, was sometimes the ugliest of things. If she wanted to be a writer – which she _did_ – then she was going to do it, but it would have been nice for her father to see it as a profession, and not just a silly, worthless way to make money.

Austin set her phone down on the tiny table in front of her as she switched her view from the window opposite her to the stack of books beside her, trying to hide some of her insecurities behind a tired mask – though she _was_ actually tired, anyway. She found it almost funny how, though her father didn't approve of writing (unless one was writing a thesis, or a theorem, or some sort of term paper that was useful instead of useless, like fiction), he seemed to have a lot of books lying around, out in the open, as if he had recently used all of them. Finding herself curious, Austin reached forward, and grabbed one of the books, flipping it open.

What she saw almost made her laugh, though, again, it also took her back.

The book she had picked up was a children's book, designed as an introduction to ancient myths, the myths it contained all relating to Norse mythology. As Austin flipped through the book she felt a quirky smile turn up her lips, remembering how her father had, back when she was little, read to her from a book very similar to the one she now held in her hands. As the pages turned, she found herself remembering different gods and goddesses, even chuckling at the cartoonish sketches of them.

Austin had perhaps flipped through ten pages when she noticed that, about halfway through the book sat a sticky note, attached to the top of one of the pages. Curiosity gripping her again, Austin flipped to the sticky note's page, finding her smile quirking.

The sticky note was attached to the page telling about the mischief god Loki, who had, beyond all reason, always been her favorite. As a young child, she'd found it interesting that while all the other gods had sought fame and glory through battle or other means, Loki had spent his time tricking others, which had been almost easier in a way.

Austin stared at the page for a moment before she sat the book down, turning back to the stack for the next tome, glancing at the cover to see what it was. To her astonishment, the next book was also about Norse mythology, and when she flipped it open, finding another sticky note, the page(s, in that book) were also the ones pertaining to Loki.

Austin felt her eyebrows furrow as she closed the new book and leaned over towards the stack again, viewing their covers with confused blue eyes. Strangely, all of the books in the stack, which was probably at least ten books high, were on Norse mythology – and they all had sticky notes sticking out of their tops. Austin felt her insides shrink in slight panic as she reached for another book, opened it, and found the same name staring back at her from the pages.

_Loki_.

Now feeling as sense of dread, as well as a sense of alarm, Austin began hurriedly flipping through all the books, finding that they all had sticky notes in the same place, that they all were marked where they read about Loki. And by the time Austin had flipped through the last book, confirming her suspicions, her chest began to feel heavy, her heartbeat pulsing in her ears.

If she had been in someone else's trailer, and not her dad's, she may not have found this development strange – after all, wasn't mythology a popular subject, and everyone had their favorite story or fictional deity. But the fact was, she _was_ in her father's trailer, and this behavior wasn't like him at all – he should have had a stack of scientific material on his couch, books pertaining to Einstein's theories or quantum physics, not books on mythology, all marked in the same place.

And what was he doing studying Loki, anyway (if you wanted to call it _studying_, since it looked to Austin more like _obsession_ than anything)? The stories contained in the books were just that – _stories_, nothing else. They weren't real, and her father was a man who was based on facts, so...it didn't make sense.

It just didn't make sense.

Austin found she felt almost ill as she stood from the couch, picked up the books, and headed towards the bedroom to stuff them away. When she'd arrived in New Mexico, she had thought that her journey had been in vain, her father not even remembering to come and meet her at his "house" – but the more that she saw, the more she was beginning to think her mother was right, that there was something strange going on.

Her father was hiding something, was obsessed with something, was devoting to it all his time, and though she doubted he would simply come out and say what it was that had changed, Austin made a pact with herself to find out the _truth_ – even if she had to dig for it.

* * *

><p>Austin was asleep when Erik finally did get home, even though it wasn't quite dark yet, lying on her side on the bed located in the bedroom he had never even used. And though he wanted to talk to her, to see her smile at least, he decided to leave her alone, knowing that she must have had a long flight, and that she probably was suffering from jet-lag.<p>

_Besides... _He reasoned, sitting down on the trailer's small, little couch. _You still have work to do. _

He had to stay up, was still anxiously waiting a call from Jane, who he was sure that Fury had seen already – unless the head of S.H.I.E.L.D. had sent an agent instead, which he kind of doubted, considering the gravity of the situation. Erik knew that when Jane accepted the assignment that Erik had already been tasked with, she would want to _talk_ – she might even come over, babbling and overflowing with new information.

And Erik was anxious to see what she had to say, to see if Fury would show the Cube to her in person, as he'd done to Erik earlier that day. He couldn't get the image of the glowing, strange square out of his mind, the way he had felt almost pulled towards it.

But then again, he couldn't get the interested, intense look that had been in Loki's strange eyes when Austin's voicemail message had been played in the car out of his head, either – and out of the two, Erik had a feeling that that look was even more dangerous than the Cube.

Erik shook his head and rubbed his temples as he sat back on the couch, and then leaned forward, hand reaching for one of his books, for the Norse mythology research he had been doing. It seemed like a most of the tales in the books that he'd achingly searched for weren't true, but they were the only sources he had that could even possibly begin to tell him more about Loki, and so he kept researching through them, searching for clues.

Erik nearly jumped when his hand met thin air, looking up to find his trailer clean.

Oh._ Clean_. He hadn't even noticed. He'd walked in the door and searched for Austin, but he'd bypassed all her work, all the things that she had put away, or thrown away, or rearranged. Erik found himself smiling slightly as he noted how she'd managed to clear his trailer of all its mess, but his smile was swallowed whole a moment later as he looked around, and found no trace of his books.

Erik felt his heart sink, landing in the bottom of his chest, as his eyes roamed towards the doorway to the bedroom, which was now closed. Since his books were nowhere to be found, there was only one place they could be, only one space in which his daughter, Austin, could have put them.

Erik ground his teeth as he sat back down on the couch, hating himself and the mess that he had placed himself – and Austin – in. And though he wasn't knowing for praying, he muttered a prayer then, hoping and pleading that Austin hadn't seen what he was researching, and that, in the short time that he would keep her there, she didn't begin to suspect the things that he was hiding from her and the rest of the world.

* * *

><p>The wind whipping through the small New Mexico town was cold that night, despite the fact that it was near the would-be hot desert, as the shadowy figure named Loki stood outside of Erik's trailer, watching as the inside lights remained on near the kitchen, signaling that the scientist would be awake for another long night.<p>

The events from that day still circled in his mind, moving rapidly as he analyzed them. And Loki had to admit that, though they had been unexpected, fate had brought about a good turn of events.

Well, a good turn of events for _him_, at least.

"Very interesting, indeed," Loki murmured to no one as he took one last look at the scientist's trailer, before a small smile curled on his thin lips, and he suddenly vanished into the night.

* * *

><p><strong>Hello, again, everyone, and thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of my new story. I didn't intend for it to be so freakishly long, but somehow...it ended up happening. This chapter was really more of a background chapter, so I can't guarantee the others chapters will be this long (which, if they are, my fingers might just fall off). <strong>

**Anyway, this story came to me the moment I left the movie theater after seeing Thor (which I loved, and which gave me a slight obsession with Loki), but I didn't have the courage to pen it until now. The fiction, as I said earlier, takes place post-Thor and pre-Avengers. Since I don't know exactly what they're doing in the Avengers, I'm going to try and shy away from that as much as I can. I've gotten the general gist from the preview after Captain America that Loki seems to go a little bit insane (which makes me sad...), but like I said, I'm not sure what they're doing, so I'm going to try and stay away from it. The story itself is more of a redemption fiction than a romance...though the latter will be included, don't worry. If you're new to my fictions, I usually try to keep things more on the realistic side, and I love dealing with heavy emotions. **

**I haven't really read any Norse mythology, but for this story, I'm doing some research. If I got anything wrong at all, please let me know so I can fix it, or if you have tips, I'd greatly appreciate it. ;) **

**In case anyone was wondering what the name of the song containing Austin's name is, it's called "P.S. this is Austin" and it's by Blake Shelton.  
><strong>

**Anyway, please review and let me know what you think! Reviews are greatly appreciated as I concoct the plot for the next chapter of this fiction.**

**~Cross**


	2. Chapter 2: Unexpected Meeting

The Science of Mystery

_Chapter Two: Unexpected Meeting_

Austin was woken from her slumber by a loud, precise wrapping sound, echoing across the walls of the trailer towards her ears, making her body move stiffly and her eyes blink sleepily.

She had had a rough night, trying to sleep through her jet-lag, which, rather than making her even more tired, as it did normal people, had somehow made her less tired but more drowsy, stuck in a permanent state of illness that left her feeling rough and dizzy. The drowsy feeling had hit sometime after she'd put away the evidence of her father's strange obsession (the mythology books), after which she'd eaten a somewhat frost-bitten microwavable dinner she'd found in her father's small freezer, feeling hungry and not wanting to venture out into the unknown. She'd tried to wait up for her father, but, now knowing what time he would arrive, since he'd never bothered to call her back, and still feeling angry at him, she'd decided to sleep instead.

She'd zoned out and finally fallen asleep perhaps ten or fifteen minutes after she'd laid down, still in her tee-shirt and jeans, though to Austin, the nausea-filled minutes had seemed like hours. And, as she'd slept, she'd dreamed, strange thoughts and ideas and pictures invading her mind, refusing to leave her alone to rest.

First, she'd seen her father, sitting at a desk, hovering over his work, his eyes tired, the bags under them much larger than normal, actually resembling a raccoon. Then, her father had moved, turning his desk chair around, and Jane had appeared, looking much more worn than Austin had ever seen her - tired, just like her father had been. Austin had been surprised to see Jane, even in the dream, since the last time she'd seen the scientist had been three years previous, when she'd last visited her father, shortly before he'd moved to New Mexico, when Jane had been visiting him as well (interrupting what could have been father/daughter time).

But, it hadn't been the sight of Jane that had told Austin she was dreaming – it had been what Jane and her father were discussing, the book that her father had pulled from his desk, pointing to a distinct picture on one of its pages as he all but shoved it into Jane's face.

"_See_," he'd said, his voice sounding different...more childish, Austin had realized, though somehow still the same. "I told you he was real. Why didn't you believe me, Jane?"

Austin had watched Jane move closer to her father, a frown on her lovely face, and as Jane had moved forward, so had she, the picture of her father and Jane becoming more clear, but the book her father was holding up, pointing to, was still blurry.

"No, that's just a book," Jane had said, shaking her head, and Austin had noticed her face change ever so slightly, a frown playing on her lips, as if she didn't believe her own words, wasn't sure about what she was saying. "It's a fairy-tale, Erik. You know that," but still, Jane had moved further towards her father, further towards the book, her eyebrows moving as she'd squinted at it; and again, as Jane had moved forward, so had Austin's vision, until she could almost see the contents of the page.

"It's no fairy-tale, Jane," Austin had felt a shiver ripple through her mind when her father had spoken next, the childish quality in his voice turning into something darker, somehow more menacing, as if he'd suddenly switched roles and turned from hero into villain. "He is real. That's what I've been trying to tell you. Why won't you listen to me?" Austin had watched as Jane's eyes had widened, and she'd stepped forward again, looking at her father with an expression that had been unreadable until –

The dream had centered, and Austin's vision had changed again, so that she was closer to the scene, closer to the book, and could finally see its contents clear as day.

And then, she'd realized that she was dreaming, because she'd seen him.

Loki.

The book her father had been holding in the dream had been the exact book she'd picked up from his stack of mythological reading material – the first book, the children's introduction to Norse mythology. And, as this information had clicked in Austin's mind, her father had gasped, and suddenly, the cartoonish drawing of Loki had leapt straight off the page, flying straight for Jane as it had let out a strangled, mischievous laugh. Jane had ducked, gasping, and then had turned to stare at the cartoonish Loki as it had flipped in midair, landing on its feet to face both her and Austin's father.

"See! I _told_ you!" Austin had felt a strange sort of foreboding weight sweep over her mind when her father had bellowed the words at Jane, who'd looked at a loss, before he'd suddenly turned directly towards her, his eyes widening in what looked like horror. "Be careful, Austin," he'd said in a voice that had matched his expression, full of horror and yet filled with heartbreaking pain. "They don't know what they're dealing with."

The foreboding weight threatening to crush Austin's mind had only intensified then, and though she'd known that she was dreaming, she'd opened her mouth to speak, to say something –

And then she had closed it again, because then the cartoonish Loki had begun to laugh, and she'd frozen, realizing that it – he? – was looking directly at her, though she'd thought she was invisible, or that only her father could see her in the dream. Everything else had seemed to evaporate as the cartoonish Loki had continued to laugh, and then its laugh had suddenly grown darker as well, turning from mischievous to sinister in an instant.

Austin had watched, mind thrumming with confusion and a strange, alien sense of terror, as the cartoonish Loki had suddenly morphed into something much different – something that had suited the dark tone of laughter that had suddenly been exuding from it, that had been taller, more like a man, though not definite, when –

Suddenly, the dream had ended, and she'd woken, hearing the loud, precise wrapping sound echoing through the air.

Austin rubbed her face in a groggy movement as she tried to extract herself from the huge - though still uncomfortable - bed, brushing her auburn locks from her face. She thought to glance out one of the room's windows to see who was outside, knocking on her father's trailer's door, but the moment she neared the window, her still-asleep brain perked up a bit, and she jumped back, out of sight.

Austin's mind jumped to a hundred conclusions as she heard another knock on the metal door - none of them good conclusions, all of them shady. She thought of what murderer or rapist could possibly be at her door, and took a deep breath, looking around to see if her father was home or not, grabbing her phone from her bedside table. The night before, when she'd fallen asleep, her father had been absent, still working on whatever he'd been working on, still ignoring her even though she had come to see him, but a glance at the bedroom door and its closed state told Austin that had arrived some time after she'd passed out, since her door was closed, and when going to bed, she'd left it open.

Austin felt a twinge of annoyance tug at her as she thought of how her father had come home, and yet hadn't had the decency to wake her and say hello, but as she sauntered over to the bedroom door, flinging it open, she pushed her annoyance aside. She'd been tired, and he'd probably been tired as well, so there was no use getting upset over it – besides, he'd closed the door, which meant he'd at least checked to see if she were breathing or not.

A long sigh issued from Austin's lips as she entered the trailer's "living room", hearing another knock on the door, this one a bit more insistent, almost annoyed sounding. She took a glance at her father's sleeping form, lying on the couch in a zombie-like fashion, head tipped and mouth hanging open, before she spotted the culprit: beer, lying on the table in front of the couch.

_Great. Now he'll have a hangover._ Austin thought as she rolled her eyes at the cans, hearing their visitor, whoever they were, knock on the door again - loudly.

"Just a minute!" Austin called in as far-away sounding of a voice as she could as she hastily grabbed the trash can and swept the beer cans into it, her nose wrinkling at the sight. Once in the bag, she opened up one of the small, barely-there cabinets in the "kitchen", taking the trash bag out of the can and stuffing in into the least-likely-to-be-looked-at spot. Once this was one, she turned to her father, who still wasn't awake.

Austin thought about letting him sleep, a small, soft side of her saying that he was probably tired, that he was no doubt overworked, that she should simply send their persistent visitor away – but the soft side of her was drowned out by anger as she thought about the previous day, how her father hadn't even bothered to be there to meet her when he'd said he would.

Austin picked up a lingering pillow, and threw it at his sleeping face. "Get up, dad!" she hissed as the pillow flew and connected with him, jumbling him awake.

Her father's eyes blinked blearily as he tried to form words, failing miserably as he looked around. Finally, he looked her way, and blinked another time, catching the look of annoyance on her face. "Austin?" he asked in a voice that sounded confused (and rough, since his head was no doubt pounding), as if he'd never laid eyes on her before.

And, Austin supposed, he truly hadn't.

He hadn't seen her for three whole years, and she had to have changed since he'd laid eyes on her last. Not only had her figure grown more womanly, her height grown taller, and her hair grown longer, but she dressed differently, and she knew, though she didn't measure up to her mom in any way, that she had a different air around her than she'd had previously – an air of confidence, she hoped…though she sincerely doubted it.

"We have a visitor," Austin said curtly as her blue eyes met her father's gaze, not even bothering to tell him hello, or that she was glad to see him – though truthfully, she was. She just wanted to wait a little bit longer before she told him so, making him feel her anger at his having left her the previous day. "They've been knocking on the door. Should I answer it?" her fingers twitched towards her cell, which was now snuggled in her jeans pocket, itching for the command to dial 911.

Her father's eyebrows knit as he looked from her to the door, blinking sleepily again, rubbing the slumber out of his eyes. Austin noticed, though he was tired and probably had a pounding hangover headache, he also looked confused – genuinely.

And she couldn't blame him, not for that – who could be knocking at the door so early? She'd glanced at the clock, and it was barely seven.

"A visitor?" her father sat up from his slumbering position, rubbing his hand across his face again, shying the grey locks of hair from his eyes. "I don't know who it could be, but let them in. It doesn't do to leave anyone standing outside – besides, it's probably Jane. She called me last night, said she'd be over at around eight this morning. Guess she's early..." he sighed as he sat back on the couch, stretching out his legs.

Austin stared at him for a moment, absorbing what he'd just said, before she turned to the door.

_Jane._ Of course. He was going to invite her in, and they'd start rattling on about their work, and then he would most likely leave and head over to his lab, leaving her alone again – to explore the town, to watch his old, probably-didn't-even-get-channels TV, or to rot into the floor and become part of the trailer itself.

He didn't care about spending time with her. He had only let her come because he'd been harassed by her mother. He didn't care that she was there at all, and he certainly didn't need her.

Austin glanced around at the trailer once before she reached for the door's handle, remembering the mess it had been in the day before, when she'd arrived, remembering her strange dream, and the books that had been piled into a stack, all sticky-noted and raving about Loki.

No. She was wrong. Her father may not have cared if she were there, but he did need her – he needed her vary badly. There was much evidence of that, and no matter how angry or hurt she was by his lack of enthusiasm, she couldn't leave. She had to take care of him, to remind him that she cared about him…and, maybe, hopefully, gain his approval at last.

He hadn't seen her in so long, and though she had talked to him on the phone, she had grown up, grown into her own person, and she wanted him to see that – to see that she could actually make something of herself, that she actually had talents that, even though they didn't pertain to his oh-so-wonderful science, were just as amazing as anything he had ever seen.

"Austin, wait – "

Austin didn't catch her father's cry before it was too late, until the front door of the trailer was already open, and she was staring into a pair of strangely green eyes, fixed in a calm and collected gaze.

"Hello," the stranger said in a formal tone, giving off some sort of accent, though which type of accent, Austin wasn't sure, though it sounded English. They smiled a friendly smile that was genuine, but, as it quirked on their lips, Austin noticed it turned up at the tips, bordering on mischievous. "Is Doctor...Selvig present?" they asked as they leaned forward ever so slightly, glancing past Austin and into the trailer, before their eyes quickly returned to her face.

"Um..." Austin found her throat felt dry as she took the figure in, not quite sure what it was that she should say.

Her father had been about to tell her to wait, had uttered the first two words of the sentence when she'd suddenly opened the door, hearing him too late. So now, was there something wrong, or did he simply not want to be disturbed, the idea coming to him only after he'd woken fully, dislodging his brain from sleep?

As Austin thought about that - about the idea that he simply didn't want to be disturbed - she smiled at the stranger and stepped back, allowing room for him to come in.

Though she loved her dad, her annoyance and anger from the previous day weren't gone yet, so she didn't mind playing a little trick on him, making him get up and talk and act like he was alive, even when he didn't want to.

"Sure. You can come in," Austin replied as she watched the stranger move - gracefully - finding it almost funny that he wasn't modest enough to say that he would come back, wait for another time. She watched as the stranger's brilliantly green eyes took in the room, a small grimace darting across his mouth before it vanished, his slightly mischievous smile returning. "Are you a co-worker, Mr…" she trailed off, closing the door behind her, and was nearly shocked when the stranger turned back towards her, offering her his hand.

"My name is Lee, Stan-son," the mysterious stranger answered as his eyes landed again on Austin, and she felt her heart leap into her throat. She wasn't one who was known for ogling at men, but even she had to admit that this man was horribly handsome in a strange, unearthly sort of way that left her feeling unnerved. "And yes, I do work with Doctor Selvig…am I to assume you are his daughter, Austin?" Austin finally managed to reach out and shake Lee's hand, little jolts of happy electricity shaking through her as she did, but a moment later, she found her father breaking in.

"You're here awfully early, uh...Lee," her father said as he stood from his space on the musty old couch, having seemingly sobered and jostled himself awake, stepping in front of Austin and severing her handshake with the mysterious scientist. Austin shot her father's back a glare as Lee's eyes fixed on him, something in them moving, though he offered the Doctor a small smile in greeting. "I didn't expect you for...some time," he finished almost lamely, turning halfway towards Austin as Lee moved around him, surveying the small, little trailer again, green eyes scoping, hands clasped behind his back, as if he were hiding something.

"Yes, well, I must admit, I am still not used to your schedule, Doctor," Lee said in an off tone as his eyes lingered on the couch where her father had been sleeping, an amused look appearing on his face before he turned back to the Doctor. "I have a feeling I woke you…" he trailed off as Austin's father sighed, looking at Lee almost warily.

Austin watched her father's face for a moment, noting the strange range of emotions that were flickering through his eyes, trying to decide what it was the he was feeling, whether or not he liked this Lee guy. It was obvious that they knew each other, and that her father was trying to be hospitable, but she knew her father's facial expressions, despite the fact that she hadn't seen him in so long, and therefore knew when he didn't like someone.

She knew when he was afraid.

Austin felt her eyebrows furrow ever so slightly as her father responded with a laugh - a laugh that she could tell was fake. She could see it in her father's eyes - he was afraid of Lee, his co-worker, though she had no idea why. The man seemed to be...strange...but he looked nice enough, even sorry now that he had intruded, woken her father up. She couldn't find any reason for her father to be afraid of him - unless her father thought Lee was out to take his job.

That's probably it. Austin mused as she sighed slightly, feeling the feeling of alarm wash away from her as her eyes flicked back towards Lee, who was now conversing with her father, asking him what had kept him up so late - polite, civil conversation. Dad is probably worried that this new guy is going to try and steal his position, but he should know better.

There was no way anyone would fire her father. He may have been older, and his mind may have been narrow in some places, but he was still a brilliant scientist. She was sure that he could theorize circles around Lee.

"Oh, Jane called me last night, wanted to talk about the...um…" Austin caught onto the men's conversation when her father's gaze switched her way for a second, looking wary again. "...the new project. I suspect the analyzation will begin today."

The words seemed to please Lee, whose smiled widened a bit, making Austin smile in turn as her nerves fluttered. She hated the effect that smile had, but she couldn't ignore it. "Very good," Lee said as her father nodded, once, twice. Then he looked at Austin again. "It was indeed nice to meet you, Austin. I am sorry for the intrusion. I suppose now I'll be on my way," the long, black coat he wore swirled slightly as he turned to the door.

But Austin stopped him.

She knew what game he was playing.

And she didn't mind taking the bait.

She was sure that this newbie, this new recruit who was working with her father, was eager to learn from the man, whether or not it was to try and replace him. And in trying to leave, he was actually asking to stay, though without blatantly stating it.

He was being tricky, but that was alright. Austin didn't blame him, and she'd never liked people who demanded their way, anyway - she got enough of that from Tony.

So, she would be tricky in turn, and try and hide the way her insides buzzed when she saw him move.

"Aren't you going to the lab?" Austin asked just before Lee could touch the doorknob, about to open it, and he paused. "Why don't you just carpool?" she knew that in stating the logical, she was making the situation less embarrassing.

Austin momentarily marveled over her improved social skills - something she had learned from her mother, who always had to deal with clients, with potential threats or friends; something she had tried not to learn from Tony, who usually came off as sarcastic and a bit narcissistic when he spoke...even if he was trying to be friendly. Most people would have cracked under the gaze of the mysterious, strangely handsome Lee.

When Lee turned from the door to look back at her, black brow raising slightly, Austin took a moment to get a good look at him, trying not to be caught staring. He really was handsome, as she had noticed before, but there was still that strange feeling emanating from him that left her feeling at unease, like she was missing something horribly obvious.

He simply didn't look like a scientist, with his dark hair swept back almost elegantly, wearing black pants that definitely weren't jeans, along with a dark, green, tailored sweater worn under his long black coat, evidence of the strange cold that was plaguing the state. Looking at him, Austin remembered that he hadn't seen a car or truck or even SUV outside when she'd opened the door and let him in; she momentarily wondered if he'd walked, but then looked down at his loafer-clad feet, and decided that he must have taken a cab…if they even had cabs in her father's small town.

Lee smiled a small smile at her, and she felt herself relax ever so slightly, wracking her unease up to nothing but nerves.

But she shouldn't have been nervous. She saw handsome men all of the time, at the parties and shows and demonstrations she attended with her mother (and Tony). She had met and at least exchanged words with everyone who was someone, but…

None of them had quite the same aura as Lee did.

"I have yet to start my work," Lee answered as his hand slid off of the doorknob, as he turned to face her and her father fully. "I am simply a…consultant, brought at the last moment," he glanced over at her father, who sighed tiredly. "I have yet met Jane, even."

Austin's eyebrows furrowed as she shook her head, dislodging her stare from Lee, praying that he hadn't noticed. She had to get her head back, concentrate. "Really?" she asked, genuinely surprised that he hadn't met Jane, since she seemed to be at the near center of all her father's work, working diligently beside him. "How long have you been here?" she tore her gaze from Lee as her father coughed inconspicuously, though she wasn't sure who he was warning - her or Lee. Her eyes narrowed as she grimaced at him, feeling affronted. "What are you working on, anyway?"

Her father usually talked about his work to her mother, though the subject bored her mom to tears, and, occasionally, when Austin was able to get him on the phone, he even told her what he was doing. She, of course, was always more interested than her mother, and would listen to him for hours if he had the time to talk, intensely interested in science though she wasn't a scientist. This arrangement usually worked well, as science and her father's studies were a joy that both of them shared, safe territory for them to chat about…until the conversation turned towards her writing, how her father wished she would change her mind, get a degree.

But, lately, he hadn't been saying much of anything - even about his work, his beloved science, to her or her mother. This had been the first thing to tip her mother off as to his well-being; she had worried when he'd started talking less and less about his science, and more and more about the weather and other random things. So Austin was curious, wanted to know what he was studying, what had changed.

Why hadn't he been telling her? And why had he been studying - of all things - Norse Mythology, especially concerning Loki. It was strange, abnormal, and maybe if she could get him to confess the strangeness now, with a co-worker around, she would start to get to the bottom of his odd behavior.

"Oh, well, that's top secret," her father wouldn't meet her eyes, turned away to start fluffing up the pillows on the couch as he spoke, as if they were now somehow important. "No mentioning it. You understand," his hands worked furiously to fluff the pillows, and Austin felt anger burn in her veins. Even though what he was working on was secret, he'd always told her about it before - why was now any different; what was he involved in?

"You never tell me anything anymore," she said, but instead of shouting it, her voice was deathly quiet, seething as she glared at her father. She didn't care that the scene had an audience, she was so upset. She felt her fists ball as her father turned his head, mouth hanging open in shock as he met her eyes…before his gaze turned to Lee, something like confusion flickering across his face.

Austin's anger drifted away slightly as she too turned towards Lee, wondering what expression he had on his face that had surprised her father, but when she looked at him, he was looking down, looking as if he had stepped into an awkward conversation, and was regretting lingering there.

And, eyes landing on him again, Austin got a brilliant idea.

If her father wouldn't tell her what was going on, then maybe she could ask Lee. Maybe he knew something, knew part of what was wrong with him, or at least what they were working on - he had to have noticed something, being around her father. And, if he wasn't working himself yet, then -

"Are you doing anything?" Austin found herself asking, watching as Lee's too-green eyes darted up towards her face, surprise and a small amount of skepticism lingering in them…as well as something else…something she couldn't identify. "I mean, since you're not working yet…would you mind…showing me around? I've never been here before." she knew it sounded lame, but she didn't know anything about her father's town, and it wouldn't hurt to have a guide as she fished for information, someone to spend time with.

And it certainly didn't hurt that he was so handsome.

Lee's slightly mischievous smile returned as he nodded slightly, Austin's nerves jittering again. "Of course. I would be delighted," he said, and looked as if he actually meant it.

Austin returned his smile as she nodded and turned towards her room, not bothering to look at her father, who she was sure was shocked by her boldness - something she hadn't had three years ago. "Okay, just let me get…" something clicked in her mind as she headed towards her bedroom. "...my coat…"

Her suitcase had been lost, and she'd slept in her clothes from the day before, her jeans and tee-shirt wrinkled now, probably looking awful. Austin's sense of feminine pride flared in embarrassment as she assessed that she must look ridiculous - would look ridiculous, especially next to suave and collected Lee - but her worry was saved at the last moment as she remembered the clothes that she had stuffed into the front of her computer bag - jeans, a shirt, and the necessities. They wouldn't be pretty, but they would be better than the wrinkled clothes she was garbed in now.

"Very well," came Lee's reply as Austin opened the door to her new room, and vanished inside.

* * *

><p>Erik stared at Austin's closed door for a moment as he contemplated what to say, what to do. He knew that he should stop this, beg Austin not to go, but he didn't quite know how to do that without it looking suspicious, or like he was treating her like a child, not letting her make her own decisions.<p>

But that wasn't it at all - he just wanted to keep her safe, away from the mess he had placed her in. He just didn't want her to be near Loki, directly in harm's way.

He was surprised that Austin had asked his evil companion to accompany her on her visit through the town, but he was even more surprised that Loki had said yes…though maybe, he shouldn't have been surprised at all. Though he was wrapped up in Loki's scheme tightly, due to his own selfish sense of pride, he knew that the trickster didn't miss anything, and always seemed to have a backup plan in case something went awry - and if Austin were with him, Erik really would have no choice but to comply to his wishes - less choice than he had even now.

Erik felt his heart sink, a strange sense of nausea overcoming him. Austin was now a chess piece, and it was all his fault.

"I expect you should learn at least something more about the Cosmic Cube today," Erik's brain was rattled at the sound of Loki's voice, clipped and precise, and he begrudgingly looked up to meet the mischief maker's sparkling green gaze. He hated that smile of Loki's - that small, almost smug smile that seemed to radiate like a particularly harsh toxin; there were no teeth in that smile, but Erik trusted it as much as he trusted a shark's toothy grin, maybe even less.

Erik sighed, feinted a sense of worry as he looked down, ran a hand through his hair as he stepped away from the couch. "I don't know…" he said, trailing off as he sighed again, hoping that he was playing his part correctly; he never had been good at acting. "It all depends on the access that S.H.I.E.L.D. gives us, and who knows how much Fury will allow us to begin with…" his eyebrows furrowed then, as if he were thinking deeply about what he'd just said, when really they were furrowing in worry.

Truthfully, he was surprised by the amount of access that S.H.I.E.L.D. had given him and Jane, what they would be allowed to work on in their new lab - located in the new S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters that had been set up in New Mexico shortly after Thor's departure (Erik was still shocked that a building could be built that quickly). Not only would they be able to work with new equipment, added to the hand-made equipment that Jane already had on hand, but they would actually be able to see the Cube for a short time, actually be in its strange, pulling presence.

It was something that Erik was both looking forward to and dreading - because as much as he wanted to know about this new, strange object that had been found, he didn't want at all to help Loki if it put his daughter in danger.

_Recognition._ Erik reminded himself again why he had decided to team up with the trickster god, though his mind also echoed that he was being stupid, that no recognition was worth this.

"We'll see what happens," Eric summed up after a moment, shrugging his shoulders as he snuck a glance at Loki, hoping to see some sort of understanding blossom across the god's face.

His wish was not granted.

Instead of understanding, Erik was met with a dark look that nearly terrified him, and a smile that didn't look like a smile at all, much too malevolent; his heart nearly stopped beating when he saw that look. "I do not think you understand, dear Dr. Selvig," Loki said as he took a step forward towards Erik, green eyes as deadly as a black hole, voice eerily calm. "You will gather the information that I require, and if not, then…" his deadly eyes trailed over to Austin's still-closed door, and Erik felt a lump rise in his throat, his heart start to beat fast as he fought a panic attack. "...well, the day may turn…unfortunate," Loki finished, lips twitching into a real, deadly smile as he looked back at Erik, who was having to fight to breathe, to stand, to think or even function.

He knew that Loki was serious, knew that this was why he'd taken Austin up on her offer. He was powerful, but he preferred to do things from the shadows, obviously - which was why he was sending Erik to do his dirty work instead of simply stealing the Cube himself, why he was using Austin as a figurative captive so that if Erik didn't do as he said, he'd lose something because of it.

Loki had seen through his guise - there was no hiding the fact that Erik loved his daughter dearly, and would do anything to keep her safe.

When Erik blinked, and the world stopped spinning, he noticed that Loki looked almost annoyed, though his smile was still in place. "Are we in agreement, doctor?" the horrible creature asked as if he were conducting a business transaction, and, barely able to move, Erik nodded.

"Yes," he said hoarsely, though he wished more than anything that he could say no, that he had never agreed to this. He'd been so stupid. He closed his eyes, as if saying yes had pained him, which, in a way, it had. "I'll get you the information you want," he felt strange, relenting to someone who looked so much younger than him, and he had to give himself another reminder - that Loki wasn't as young as he appeared, that he had seen things that Erik never would, had seen things that Erik would never have time to understand.

Erik had been researching, but he still didn't know everything yet, didn't even know if the stories in mythology were true. He didn't feel prepared for this, and so, at least now, he couldn't do anything to fight back, especially with Austin directly in harm's way.

Maybe he would talk to Jane. Maybe they could find a way to let S.H.I.E.L.D. know where Loki was, how to get to him. Maybe they could bring Loki down before he became even more dangerous - if they kept things secret. Maybe Loki wouldn't find out.

Erik didn't know, but he did know one thing - he was tired of being a pawn, and he wanted his daughter safe…though he wasn't quite sure how he could keep her safe, other than try and do what Loki asked of him.

Erik tried to give himself some hope as he suddenly remembered something - the look he had caught, just barely, flickering across Loki's face when Austin had lashed out at him in hurt and anger, when she'd told him that he didn't tell her anything anymore, that she basically wasn't part of his life at the moment. Erik had looked up, intending to tell her that he was sorry, when he'd caught the look that had been on the trickster's face instead.

He was sure that Loki hadn't intended to have the look - or for Erik to catch it - but he had. And now, remembering it, Erik found himself confused, because Loki had looked almost…_sad_, almost as if he knew what Austin was talking about, sympathized with her a bit. It was a look that Erik hadn't expected to be there, a look that had made Loki seem almost human.

And now, Erik just hoped that that look - that interest - was enough to keep Austin alive, even if, in the end, he couldn't do anything to save her.

* * *

><p>Austin hastily made her way over to the small cubbyhole where she had stashed her laptop case, glad that she had thought to stuff an extra set of clothes in there, just in case the plane was delayed and she was left without her suitcase. From the "living room", she could hear her father and Lee speaking, but she had no idea what they were saying, since the sound was muffled and low. She reached into the front of the computer case to pull out her clothes hastily, wanting to get her day started, and wanting to leave before Jane arrived.<p>

It wasn't that she didn't like Jane, but…she really didn't want to see her at the moment, to be reminded that, though she had come to visit him in his time of dire need (though that wasn't exactly the way he pictured it, she was sure), her father would be spending more time with Jane than he would with her. She knew it wasn't Jane's fault, and to a degree it wasn't her father's, either, but she couldn't help being jealous.

Though he didn't appreciate her choices, only called her because he had to, and didn't even seem happy to see her now that she was visiting, Austin couldn't hide the fact that she craved her father's reassurance and approval as did every child, and was tired of having to fight others for it, especially when it didn't seem like she could win, no matter what she did.

Austin sighed as she fished her clothes from her laptop case, lamenting the fact that the bathroom was near the "living room" and not in her room, before she very suddenly stopped, anger leaking through her veins.

Where her clothes should have been there lingered a package, wrapped in paper that oddly reminded her of Christmas, accept for it was the wrong colors - a strange, nearly golden color and an almost crimson red. Austin glared at the package as she took it out, noting that beneath it lay her jeans and essentials, but not her shirt - at least something that she had packed was still there.

Austin sat down on the edge of her bed and stared at the package, debating if she wanted to open it or not. She had a sneaking suspicion of where it had come from, and that suspicion both caused her anger to burn and her lips to threaten twitching into a smile.

_He'd better not have._ Austin thought as she realized that there was a note attached to the package; she plucked it off, opening it immediately.

She recognized the handwriting. It was her mother's.

Austin groaned as she began reading.

_Dear Austin,_

_I hope you're having fun on your trip, and be sure to call me as soon as you read this, and every ten hours after that at least, even if you're feinting sleep._

_I'm sure that you'll be upset with me for "invading" your privacy and placing this package in your bag, but I simply couldn't help it. It arrived for you in the mail shortly before you were about to leave, and I just knew that it would be important. Nothing like having something to smile at when you're in the bloody war zone - I mean, with your father._

_Much love and best wishes,_

_Your Mother_

_PS: Don't forget to call me - and I don't want you claiming amnesia, either._

Austin crumpled the note after she'd read it and sighed. Sometimes, she just didn't understand her mother. With everything that the woman had to do trying to help run a company, going to events, entertaining, you would have thought that she'd be too busy to even breathe, but she seemed to always have time to keep tabs on Austin, and while she seemed to respect Austin's choices more than her father did, Austin still couldn't help but feel like her mother was constantly treating her like a child.

No one seemed to take her seriously. It was as if they thought that she had no idea what she was doing, hadn't planned out anything - did everything on a whim, like some spoiled rich kid who threw around their fortune simply because they could. But no, she wasn't like that. She strove not to be like that. She had hopes and dreams and she was realistic, was making her way towards realizing them. The only difference was that she had the luxury of taking her time, didn't have to grope for money like so many others did.

Maybe I should go back to college. Austin thought as she crumpled the note into a ball and threw it across the room, watching as it hit the window before bouncing to the ground. Maybe if I was struggling and taking classes, loaded with too much homework, then they'd finally see that I'm being responsible and taking my life seriously. Or maybe I should get an internship and work with dad. At least then I'd find out what's wrong with him…

Austin shook her head to dislodge the thought as she turned back to the wrapped package, not really wanting to open it, but feeling that she didn't have much of a choice, since her outfit was complete save a shirt, and she had a feeling that she knew what would be in the "present".

Austin unwrapped the package quickly, before she could change her mind, and felt her face fall when she saw what was contained in it.

It was even worse than she had expected, because in her hands was a shirt, white in its entirety save the words and picture that were plastered on the front, reading: I LOVE IRONMAN.

Austin took a deep breath as she whipped out her phone and typed a message, sending it to Tony.

_I'm going to murder you in a very unpleasant way._

The message read, and, scowling at the shirt, Austin relented, knowing that she had no choice. She set her phone down on her bed as she fished the rest of her clothes out of her laptop back and hurriedly changed, using the window as a mirror to make sure that her hair wasn't completely horrible looking. She'd almost forgotten that her father's too-wonderfully-handsome co-worker was waiting for her, and felt guilt prick at her as she went to put her phone into the pocket of her fresh jeans, slipping her jacket on.

A moment later, just as she was about to exit her room, she heard her phone ring and scowled, knowing who it was without even looking.

"You're the fifth person to threaten to murder me this week," Tony Stark said in his normal, grinning voice as she held the phone to her ear, grimacing. "I would say that's a record, but last time I checked, the record was at least twenty. I must not be doing my job right," Tony sighed, as if disappointed with himself, though Austin imagined that there was an annoying smirk on his face.

Austin glanced down at the white T-shirt she was now wearing, wondering what sort of look Lee and her father were going to give her when they saw it, and if she would ever live through the humiliation. "Why'd you give me this thing, Tony? It's embarrassing," she groaned, some of her anger slipping away.

She never could stay mad at Tony Stark for long - few people could. There was simply something about him that made everyone like him…either that, or hate and want to murder him, and not playfully.

"You're actually wearing it?" Austin grimaced again as Tony laughed, and then sobered, playing it off as a cough. "It's a prototype of the shirts that I had made. They went on sale today, and we have back-orders already," there was a smile in his voice, and Austin couldn't help but smile back, though a small part of her felt agitated.

She shook her head as she looked at her door, hoping that her father and Lee were still chatting, and that she wasn't being too rude by making him wait. "You're selling shirts now, Tony? Aren't you rich enough?" she made sure to put some bite into her voice to let him know that she didn't like the idea of him making money for nothing - after all, wasn't he supposed to be trying to save the world now, promote peace, snarky attitude and metal demolition suit aside?

"It's for a good cause," Tony protested, though Austin noticed that he didn't say what it was.

Austin shook her head again, and made her way over to her bed to sit down, wanting to be comfortable while she had to talk at least. "Yes, well, it's still embarrassing. I lost my suitcase on the flight over, and now all I have to wear is your shirt, which is horrid since I'm going out with -" Austin cut off abruptly, cheeks turning slightly red.

She'd made it sound like she was going out on a date, which certainly wasn't the case. She just didn't want to have to walk around town all day with no idea where it was that she was going. And if her father's co-worker just so happened to be completely sexy - which he was - well, that wasn't her fault, now was it? She was certainly glad that he was nice to look at, since she would be spending the day with him.

"Ooooh, a guy. So, is he cute?" Tony asked, adopting a curious tone and making Austin's face burn even more brightly.

Not only was she embarrassed of what he was asking, she was also embarrassed that she didn't have someone to gush details to, no girl-friend with whom she could share her secrets. She only had Tony and her mother, and her mother was certainly out of the question, would probably have the FBI coming after poor Lee if she were to find out that Austin was even the slightest bit attracted to him. Maybe she'd call Pepper, Tony's poor assistant, later and gush to her, though Pepper was usually so busy trying to keep Tony straight that she had time for little else.

Austin nearly growled into the phone. "What have you been drinking, Tony? I am not having this conversation with you," she said hotly, and then quieted down as she heard a chuckle from the opposite end of the line. "Besides, he's my dad's co-worker, and he'd just showing me around. Nothing else," at least, not now…

Austin shook her head to drown that thought as she tried to focus. Yes, she would it admit it, Lee was very attractive, but he wasn't the reason that she was there, and more than anything, she wanted to see if he knew what was wrong with her father, see if he could help her in any way. She had to stay focused, and couldn't let herself become sidetracked…no matter how easy it would prove.

Besides, she'd made it a rule to never get involved with men, because they always seemed to cause trouble - she knew that all too well, going to all the functions she did, having grown up around Mr. Stark.

"It would have been an awkward conversation, anyway," Tony relented after a moment, drawing Austin back into the conversation. "But at least you're getting to do something that doesn't involve worrying over your...father," Austin thought she heard his voice turn dark, icy, and though she felt defensive when she heard it, she also couldn't blame him. "I've got to go anyway, but make sure to have fun on your date," Austin heard another chuckle then, and just before she was about to reiterate the fact that it wasn't a date, she heard the dial tone as Tony hung up on her.

Of course. He'd squirmed his way out of things yet again, though she didn't have any time to worry about it, because it was getting closer to eight.

Jane would be arriving any minute, and if Austin wanted to pass her by, then she was going to have to move as well.

Austin slipped her phone into her pocket as she made her way to her door again, realizing that she soft chatting she had heard before had finally stopped, and that Lee must have really been waiting on her now. She reached for her doorknob and turned it, opened the door with an apology on her lips, ready to be spoken, when suddenly the words died, and her eyes widened.

"Oh…Austin," Jane's eyes widened in turn as she started, and then blinked, a smile sliding across her face, though it didn't exactly look real, more…was that frightened? "How are you?" she asked as she crossed the room, enveloping Austin in a hug, and Austin's eyes fell on Lee.

He was watching them - or, more accurately, he was watching Jane, something unfathomable in his sparking green eyes. Austin felt a shiver travel up her back as she watched him, and then suddenly he blinked, a small smile twitching on his lips as his eyes passed her, and then traveled over to her father.

"We should be going now, I believe, Doctor Selvig," he said in a gracious manner, just as Jane released Austin, who had never really been hugging her, eyes much too focused on Lee and his look…the look that he made her feel as if he'd put Jane under a microscope and was examining her, prodding her for weaknesses; it was a look that made her skin crawl, but that only made her more interested in him. "I should hate to get in your way," his smile lengthened when he said that, and Austin got the distinct impression that he was biting back a laugh, as if what he'd said was funny.

It was then that Jane seemed to really notice Lee, casting him a glance before she looked back at Austin. "Is he a…friend of yours, Austin?" she asked in a quiet tone, but not so quiet that the men didn't hear it.

"No, no - just a fellow scientist," surprisingly, it was Austin's father who spoke, stepping forward to lay a hand on Jane's shoulder, effectively shielding her from Lee's prying gaze. "The…director called him in, probably forgot to tell you about it. He won't start working with us for another few days, maybe longer. Today he's showing Austin around," Austin wasn't sure if she imagined it or not, but she thought she saw her father's grip on Jane's shoulder tighten just a bit, as if he were trying to tell her something.

Her eyes narrowed, as did Lee's, but Jane didn't seem to notice as her eyebrows furrowed for a moment, and then suddenly she relented. "Oh, well, that's great," she managed before Austin's father stepped back, retracting his hand from her shoulder, and Jane turned her smile (still broken, in Austin's opinion) towards Lee as she stepped forward, offering him her hand. "I'm Jane. As you probably know, I work with Erik," she laughed a little, the sound nervous, as she continued to hold her hand out.

"A pleasure," Lee said, but didn't take her hand to shake, leaving it lingering there for a moment before Jane's smile faltered a bit, and she finally dropped it to her side.

Austin watched the exchange with curiosity, trying to figure out what was happening. Lee seemed nice enough to her father, but obviously he didn't seem to like Jane much - were they competing for a job, maybe? Was Lee trying to learn more from her father so that he could best Jane and win the job, instead of trying to win the job from her father?

Austin wasn't sure, but it was a good thought to keep in mind, another piece to the puzzle that had formed the moment she'd stepped off of the plane and into New Mexico. There seemed to be more happening here than she'd thought, so she tucked the information and images away for later, to examine when she gleaned more information.

Lee's eyes turned to her then, and Austin thought that she saw amusement in them, making her heart pound slightly - after which she of course told it to shut up. "Miss Selvig?" he asked, head tilting slightly towards the door. "Are you quite ready to leave?"

"Y-Yes," Austin had almost forgot what they were doing, that they were going anywhere, she had been so lost in that gaze of his. "I'm ready to go," she went to cross the room, nodding towards Jane, and then her gaze fell on her father, who was grimacing…at her shirt.

"Where did you get a thing like that?" he asked, drawing all eyes to Austin's embarrassment, after which she wanted to kill him almost as much as she'd wanted to kill Tony. "Does that say-"

Austin cut him off abruptly. "Yes, it does," she said, not wanting to further the embarrassment that she felt. She pursed her lips and looked down, wishing that they had left already. "Tony gave it to me."

"Stark?" her father asked incredulously, and then seeing the answer in her eyes, he rubbed his forehead and sighed, fixing Austin with a look. "Austin, you need new friends."

Austin was about to tell him that hey, at least she had a friend, and didn't spend all of her days in a lab hoping that she would discover something, when suddenly, a thought entered her mind, and she grinned deftly.

Her father looked a bit afraid as she walked over to Lee, who followed her with his eyes, and laid a hand on his shoulder. "I have a new friend," she said, just as her father's mouth fell slightly open, Jane looking on as if she wanted to interrupt, but then again, she didn't. Austin gestured to Lee. "Dad, meet Lee - Lee, meet dad. All introduced? Okay then, let's go," she withdrew her hand from Lee's shoulder and turned towards the door, flinging it open as anger bit at her insides, her jeep appearing before her eyes - she had never been so happy to see it.

Here she was hoping that her father wouldn't notice her strange apparel - but no, he had to notice everything, even the things that she didn't want him to see. And again, even with clothing, he was disgruntled with her choices.

"Austin, wait," but still…when her father called to her, she stopped, letting Lee exit first. He looked back at her with curiosity in his green eyes, but she merely pulled out her keys and clicked open her Jeep, gesturing for him to climb in.

At first, Austin wasn't sure if Lee would, but after a moment he seemed to think better of it, though when he sat down gracefully, she noticed at he was watching them - as was Jane, though she was being less conspicuous about it, pretending to be looking around at the now-clean trailer, as if she'd never seen it before.

Austin turned towards her dad, pulling her sunglasses out of her bag to shove them on her face. "What is it?" she asked somewhat snippily, casting a glance back at her jeep and Lee, as if they were running on a schedule and had to hurry.

When Austin looked back, her eyes catching her father's gaze, she was surprised to find that it was intense, as if he were trying to communicate something with her - but what? She could tell that he didn't want her to leave, but she didn't know why.

He must really not have liked Lee - even more than she'd thought. The younger man seemed nice enough to Austin, if a bit strange, but then again, he was so attractive that maybe she wasn't thinking clearly. Maybe there was something her dad knew that she didn't. Maybe he was…dangerous.

Austin shook her head and frowned at her father, taking a step back to leave again. She didn't care if Lee was trouble or not, because for the moment, he was one of the only ones who would be able to help her. Austin knew that she could have simply asked Jane, but Jane seemed to be working too closely with her father, and if there was something wrong, Jane would tip her father off, let him know that she was seeking information - and the last thing that she wanted was to miss her chance to find out what was going on.

So, she would ask Lee. He obviously was spending time with her father, and he was obviously working on the same project, but he didn't seem to be as deeply involved. That, and he didn't know her like Jane did, had never met her before, so maybe…

Austin swallowed thickly as her father's hand landed on her arm, holding her back. She blinked again and looked back at him, finding him grinning a completely fake, watery smile.

"Be careful, Austin," with those few words, Austin was thrown back to the dream she had woken from that morning, the dream in which the fictional Loki became real, and her father became terrified. And though her father was grinning, she could hear the terror in his voice even now.

Austin felt her heart beat loudly as she nodded and stepped back again, her father's hand falling from her arm. "Don't worry, dad," she said, adjusting her coat and trying to hide her ridiculous Iron-Man shirt. Her lips twitched into a smile as she held her bag up for him to see, waving it. "I brought Pepper Spray," she laughed, but her father didn't seem amused.

If anything, his fake smile stretched as he looked past her towards her jeep, towards Lee, waving in an almost jolly way. "Pepper Spray, eh?" he asked, eyes sliding back to her; she couldn't hide the worry she felt when she saw his eyes practically scream at her again, a hidden terror in them. "Well, if you go to use it, make sure you don't blink…or he might disappear," Austin frowned, not quite sure what he meant, but she tried to push it from her mind as she nodded and started again towards her Jeep.

She barely even glanced at Lee as she sat down and started the engine, her mind still concentrated on her father, whose eyes followed her until he was out of sight, giving her more than one silent warning.

* * *

><p><strong>Hello, everyone! Sorry it has taken so long for me to get this chapter out. An evil thing called work has been keeping me away from updating, but hopefully the other chapters will come more quickly.<strong>

**A note on Loki's name: I debated on this for a while. I originally wanted to use a name that rhymed with "Loki", but for some reason, the name "Lee" kept coming to my mind. So, I decided on "Lee", and then gave him the last name "Stan-son"; this is a play on Stan Lee.  
><strong>

**I hope you all enjoyed, and would like to thank the reviewers for their lovely reviews: kdrl, cherry-888, Azura Soul Reaver, gorgeousness, The Mistress Snape, taytayfanatical, and Bluebird Blues.**

**Be sure to leave me a review, and let me know what you think! Until next time! **

**~Cross**


	3. Chapter 3: Finding Inspiration

The Science of Mystery

_Chapter Three: Finding Inspiration_

Austin wasn't quite sure what to do or say as the Jeep traveled down the gravelly road, leading them towards the town, so she entertained the first thought that entered her mind -

_Music_.

Reaching forward to spin the dial on the radio (her rental was more than a few years old, unfortunately, and didn't even connect to her iPod), she cast a subtle glance at Lee, her traveling companion for the day, only to find that he was already looking at her, watching her with those much too green eyes of his. She gasped slightly when her eyes met his, though she managed to keep her grip on the wheel as she felt her face turn red.

Before, she had thought it strange that he was a scientist, but now, she didn't find it so strange after all, because he obviously had a habit of examining _everything_, though she probably wouldn't have noticed if she weren't so observant herself.

"Um…" Austin's mouth felt dry when she went to speak, and she mentally chastised herself. If she was going to be spending the day with Lee, questioning him about her father, she couldn't be losing her cool every few seconds, or every time their eyes met; this was strictly _business_, so she shouldn't be acting like a teenage girl going on her first date. "You don't mind music, do you?" she finished, asking hopefully, adding a somewhat shaky smile.

She really hoped that he didn't mind, because she was used to driving with music - doing everything with music, really. It helped her to think.

Amusement returned to Lee's eyes, and suddenly she felt like an animal, like a pet that he had picked up at the store, and was having fun watching, wondering when it would begin to do tricks. "Of course not," he replied as he, thankfully, looked out the window at the road, watching the desert drift by.

Austin sighed, trying to steel her nerves, as she finally turned the music on, the sounds of _Blink 182_ echoing through the car softly - a band that she had always loved, a band from her teenage years.

The music drifted for a moment as Austin turned back to the road, letting the melody of "_All The Small Things_" calm her, before she again glanced at Lee to find him staring at the radio intently, a strange frown on his face.

She tried not to let herself become embarrassed, but it happened anyway.

"I know, it's old, but only by a few years - not even twenty," Austin said, defending her music, hoping that he didn't already think she was a complete idiot, because that wouldn't help her one bit…and in turn, she wouldn't be able to help her father, infuriating as he was.

To her surprise, she heard Lee chuckle. "Twenty years is hardly 'old', anyway," he said as he glanced at her yet again, and she felt her fondness for him grow. "It is simply..._different_ than what I am used to."

"Oh, well, I kind of _live_ on different," Austin replied as she pried her eyes from him and stared ahead yet again, following the road signs, though she did wonder what he thought of her confession, of those words. "I guess it comes from being the strange one in the family," she sighed on that note, though a small smile lingered on her face.

She had always been different, even in a family as odd as hers, with a father who was a scientist, and a mother who had become as rich as Tony Stark - who, by the way, she counted as family as well, definitely the oddest out of the bunch other than her. And she wasn't so rash as to think that she was _normal_, because she wasn't, and she had no desire to be.

What she couldn't understand was why her father, who studied the stars, and all of the strange, unexplainable things of the universe, couldn't accept the oddity that he himself had created, helped give life to.

Austin could feel Lee's eyes watching her yet again, could tell that he wanted to ask her something, play on the words that she herself had said, but he didn't get the chance to say anything else, because once they entered town, everything changed -

"What happened here?" Austin practically shouted as they drove into the small town that her father lived on the border of, the town that was covered in wreckage of every sort, that looked as if it were slowly being rebuilt. "It looks like there was a war," she noted as she drove and then stopped, parking the Jeep at a nearby diner, hungry since she hadn't eaten yet.

The diner itself was in disrepair, the windows taped over and sealed with see-through plastic, stretching across them like wrapping paper. The side of the building looked almost...charred, as if a fire had bit into it, though the fire hadn't spread, had only taken a small, precise war path. Even the inside was in some disarray, though it looked to be much more tended than the windows and the outside of the building.

Austin slipped off her seatbelt without even thinking, and then slipped out of the car, feeling as if she were in a daze as she walked and stepped onto the sidewalk and then stopped, staring down the street. As far as she could see there seemed to be some sort of chaos, some sort of work that needed to be done, buildings that needed to be rebuilt, saved.

The sight nearly brought tears to her eyes, because it reminded her -

Of the videos. Of the newspaper articles. Of the speculation.

She lived in a time where chaos was normal, but she had never seen it firsthand, had only pictured it in her mind as she'd waited, all those months ago, for her best friend to return, to hopefully be alive.

She wondered if this was what Tony had seen, if this was what had changed him, or if it had been worse, even more heartbreaking.

Surely.

"Miss Selvig, are you alright?" it was Lee's voice that brought her back to reality, that shook her from her reverie, from the past. Austin blinked to find that she was breathing heavily, that there were tears brimming in her eyes, and that she felt somewhat faint, half caught in the past, and half caught in the present. She looked at Lee, watched him with her eyes, to find that he appeared to be concerned...though in his green orbs, there was not a sense of worry, but curiosity.

She really was like a pet - like a fish that he watched, swimming in its bowl.

She wondered what had happened to make him so aloof, and why no one else seemed to see it. Or...maybe they_ did_ see it. Maybe that was why Jane had appeared to be afraid, why her father had tried to warn her.

But what were they so _afraid_ of? Lee was only a person, just as she was, and she didn't think he intended to harm her (and if he did, well, she had her Pepper Spray). He was simply curious and needed something to do, something to examine while he was waiting to join her father's team…

Or maybe that wasn't it. Maybe there was something else, something _hidden_.

Didn't people tend to focus all of their attention on someone or something other than themselves when they were running from something - a person, a problem, a dream?

But what was he running from, if anything?

_What_?

She wanted to know, felt a burning to desire to find out, the writer in her curious, just as Lee, the scientist, was. And that desire matched her need to help her father, to discover what was wrong with him, and so she made it her mission to uncover the reason for Lee's strangeness as well.

"I'm sorry. I'm fine," Austin managed as she took in a deep breath, closed her eyes to the ruined town, and the efforts to rebuild it. "It's just...whatever happened here, it reminded me of something, and I wasn't expecting it," she wondered if she should have said as much after she spoke, but she decided that, if she was going to figure out anything about Lee, then he was going to have to trust her, and the best way to build trust was to be honest.

Plus, she didn't know Lee, and he didn't know her. And as much as she wanted to help her father, as much as that was the reason that she had come to New Mexico in the first place, she also was starting to realize that there were other reasons for her leaving home, her comfortable place.

She felt lost, felt like a stranger in her own skin. She wanted to make something of herself, but she didn't know how, and she was still seeking her father's approval. And maybe if she made a new friend, discovered something on her own, without anyone else's help, she would start to feel more like her own person, wouldn't need his approval as much.

Maybe she would be able to start writing again, finish that book that Tony was already looking at marketing.

She was already feeling the itch to write - she just needed some inspiration.

And a new experience, a new friend, would provide her with that.

Again, Lee looked curious, and she felt that he was about to ask her something, try and get her to elaborate on what she had just said, but again, she beat him to speaking.

"So, anyway...I'm kind of hungry. Do you mind?" Austin asked, tilting her head towards the diner poised next to them, feeling that her stomach was on the verge of rumbling loudly, embarrassingly.

Lee's lips twitched into a smile as he looked from her to the town that had made her cry, something swirling in the depths of his green eyes. "Not at all," he replied as he looked back at her, and they then headed into the diner, being careful when they opened its still slightly off the hinge door, so as not to break anything else.

* * *

><p>Erik felt as if he were wearing a hole into the floor as he paced back and forth, back and forth, his eyes constantly darting from the floor to the door, and then back again.<p>

He was nervous. He was worried. He was terrified, and Jane wasn't making it any better with her constant chattering.

"Did you see the Cube when Director Fury called you in? I couldn't _believe_ it - something so small contains so much power, so much ability. I can't wait to get working on it. I've already noticed a few things, and I have some theories -" Jane stopped talking abruptly, and then Erik looked up, feeling a sudden sense of alarm, panic setting in immediately, his main emotion anymore. But no, nothing was _wrong_. She was simply staring at him, disbelief on her face as she held her coffee mug tight in her hands - her tenth cup already that day. "Eric, are you even _listening_?" she asked, her voice half worried and half agitated, as it always was.

Erik nodded absently, then went back to his pacing. "Of course, of course," he said, his mind automatically drifting right back to where it had been -

Austin.

Was she safe? Was she hurt? Was she even _alive_?

What had Loki done to her? There had to have been something. Erik knew better than the trust him, and again he hated himself for putting her in the middle of the mess he was in, the mess that he was beginning to realize several people had been dragged into.

Not only Austin, but now Jane, whom Erik _knew_ Loki hated.

He was putting their lives on the line, and for what - _recognition_? It was selfish, but he had to continue playing the game, even if he didn't care about the recognition anymore, because in this game, there was no quitting, no withdrawing once you were in.

He was_ trapped_, and so were they.

And the sad thing was...there wasn't anything he could do about it, because here, Loki had all the power.

And now, he had Austin as well.

"I shouldn't have let her go. I should have stopped her - should have done something, _anything_," Erik said aloud, thoughts leaking from his lips as he continued to pace, his feet feeling sore, but his brain not registering it. Then, he shook his head, chided himself yet again. "But it wouldn't have done any good. It wouldn't have changed anything."

Trying to keep her would have only irritated his figurative master, and then Austin would have probably ended up dead, anyway.

No, he was just going to have to trust her, trust that she knew what to do, trust that she would put the pieces together, that she would wise up and go home. Despite the fact that she wasn't a scientist as he had wanted her to be, Erik couldn't deny that Austin was bright and observant. Hopefully, she would sense that there was something wrong, and then he could send her away.

Maybe he should send her to Stark. As Iron-Man, he would be able to at least _protect_ her, right? Erik wasn't a fan of the billionaire, but he knew that Stark had connections, had ways of getting exactly what he wanted. Maybe if he sent Austin to him, Stark would become suspicious, send Fury in.

But, would that help? If he sent her away, then Loki would become suspicious as well, and probably before Stark would even get the hint.

No, Austin would have to leave on her own, would have to want to run away, to be away from _him_. She would have to make the trickster lose interest in her…something that Erik doubted would happen, especially since he'd seemed to, somehow, someway, sympathize with her a bit, find her intriguing, aside from wanting to hold power over Erik in every way.

Once again, Erik realized that there was nothing that he could do, nothing he could say, because every plan that he came up with seemed as though it wouldn't work.

Because, in every plan, his daughter was the variable.

"Erik," Jane's voice appeared just before her face did, right in his line of vision, her hands reaching out to grip his shoulders, to steady him. Her brown eyes stared at him in worry, and he suddenly felt as if he were rising to the surface, as if he had been drowning, and she was trying to save him. "Are you okay? You're _shaking_," she tugged on his arm as he realized that she was indeed right, that he _was_ shaking, pulling him towards one of the tables located in the lab. "Here, sit down. You have to tell me what is going on," Jane practically shoved him into the chair before she hurriedly fetched herself another cup of coffee, making one for him as well.

Once she set the two cups on the table, she fixed her eyes on him, her brown orbs boring holes into his skin.

What should he _do_? Should he tell her what was happening, or should he_ lie_?

Lie? He was starting to sound like Loki, starting to act like him, and he hated it.

He hated _him_.

"Erik," Jane's voice was more commanding now, though it was also softer, more serious. She leaned across the table slightly as her eyes narrowed. "_What. Is. Going. On,_" Erik watched her for a moment, and then realized that she wasn't going to back down.

She wanted to know what was going on, and he didn't blame her. The only question was: _should he tell her_?

She was already involved, so maybe he should. Maybe he should warn her, like he hadn't warned Austin, much too afraid of what might happen if she knew, of might might find her, what she might think. Now, looking back, it had been a somewhat stupid decision, but he still didn't want her to know, because if she knew, he knew that she would be curious.

Jane would be curious, too, but at least she would be able to hide it, would know the risks, because she was working on the same project as he was. And as much as Erik hated it, Jane had already put herself in harms way by accepting S.H.I.E.L.D.'s offer, by accepting to study the Cube, by meeting Thor in the first place. She was already alright with being a target, with have arrows hurled at her at every turn.

Austin wasn't. She didn't know _anything_.

She was just a kid.

She was _his_ kid.

"It's Thor's brother," Erik regretted the words the moment they left his mouth, the moment that he saw Jane's eyes widen, the look of horror that crossed her face.

She sat up straight, hands gripping the edge of the table in front of her as she spoke through gritted teeth. "Thor's _brother_ - as in, the crazy guy who tried to tear the town apart, who tried to_ kill_ us, who tried to kill _Thor_? The guy you let Austin leave with, Erik? _Loki_?" Jane was near hysterical as she shook her head repeatedly, her breathing heavy now, her eyes worried, angry, unbelieving.

Erik felt like he couldn't breathe as well. He had been hoping that Jane would remain calm, would help him think, but she seemed to be even more distraught than he was.

Oh, how he regretted his mistake, his choices. He again wondered - how could he have been so stupid?

How could he have been so greedy?

"Jane, you _have_ to help me," Erik pleaded as Jane continued to breathe heavily, now glaring at him, her eyes narrowed to slits. "We have to do something. I don't know what, but, Austin -"

To his surprise, Jane stood then, looking more angry than terrified now. "I'm going to go get her," she said as she hastily pushed her chair back, the chair tipping and falling to the floor in her flurry.

Erik was immediately on his feet. "Jane, you _can't_," he tried to plead, tried to reason.

Why had he told her? Now, everything was falling apart, and Austin was going to suffer for it, maybe even Jane.

Jane stopped abruptly as he rushed to stand in front of her, to block her way. Her mouth fell open in disbelief, and her frame tightened with fury. "I can't go get her?" she repeated, incredulous. "Erik, are you _insane_? He's going to _kill_ her if we leave her with him. Don't you _remember_ what he _did_? Do you even know what he's capable of?"

"Of_ course_ I know!" Erik found his anger then as well. He usually didn't make a habit of becoming angry, especially at Jane, but now, he couldn't help it. His calm had gone out the window, and he knew that he was acting irrational, that he wasn't making sense; he felt as if he were going insane. "I don't know everything, but I've seen - and we _know_. We know that he tricked Thor, that he nearly killed us all, and now he's after the Cube. He wants _revenge_, Jane - especially on _you_," these words he did not regret, because he was warning her, but he felt his heart sink within his chest.

Loki had made it more than clear that he wanted the Cube - the _tesseract_, as he had called it, though he had termed it Cube as well, probably in amusement. Loki wanted its power, but he had also made it clear that he was out to get Jane - Jane, who had changed his brother into something that he could not recognize; Jane, who was somewhat the root of his problems. Erik was surprised that Loki hadn't attacked her that morning, when they had met, but then again…forward didn't seem to be his style; he instead seemed to enjoy toying with people, bringing them down before he ended them.

Jane's face went blank for a moment before it suddenly gained its anger again, and she pushed past him harshly, headed for the door. Erik wanted to turn, wanted to follow her, but something inside of him withered, and he just couldn't.

He couldn't move, couldn't proceed. He was ruining _everything_ - everything he loved, everything he believed in - and he still wasn't sure how to fix it, or if he even could, should even keep trying.

"I'm going to get Austin. I won't lose anyone else I care about," Jane said as she stopped at the door, her back turned to him, before she exited, the door slamming shut behind her.

Erik stared at the lab, full of equipment, full of things that were for research, that were meant to make their lives better, as he thought -

As he wondered where exactly it was that he had gone wrong.

* * *

><p>One order later found Austin and Lee sitting at a table in the diner, facing one another, a cup of coffee poised in front of both of them as they waited for their food (Lee had scowled at everything on the menu, but had finally decided that trying toast might not be so bad). Lee stared down at the coffee in his cup as if it were alive, as if it might try and jump out at him, burn him, as Austin watched his reaction, a small smile on her face.<p>

Even if she didn't learn the reason why he was so aloof, didn't learn anything about her father's strange behavior from him, his facial expressions would be payback enough, because his reactions were so very interesting.

"What did you say the name of this liquid is again?" Lee asked in his regal tone as he finally looked up at her, green eyes questioning, raising one black eyebrow minutely. "Your father has referred to it before, however…" he stopped, left her hanging, a good way to get her to speak.

Austin's small smile grew as she picked up her coffee cup and held it in her hands, letting the warmth from it seep into her. It was strange to be having a real conversation with someone - most of the time, Tony was so in love with his own voice that she didn't get many words in.

So what if Lee had left the sentence open so she would be practically forced to speak? She found it kind of refreshing that he at least had the courtesy to leave room for her words, her opinions or ideas.

"It's called coffee," Austin replied as she adjusted the cup in her hands, and then took a sip; it was a bit bitter, but she still liked it, even though it could use some more sugar. "You don't have it where you come from? Which is…" she paused, blinking, realizing that she wasn't quite sure which country it was that he had come from; he sounded English, but she couldn't be sure.

Lee's smile was faint. "Coffee," he repeated as he looked back down at his cup, cocking his head ever so slightly. "Interesting name," he then proceeded to take a drink, only to put the cup back down immediately, nose crinkled in disgust. "It is, however, not as lovely as it sounds," Austin saw the diner's waitress pass by them just then, frowning at him, as if he had insulted her.

She tried to cover a laugh, but it didn't work. "It is a little bitter," she noted as Lee pushed the coffee cup away from him, sliding it to the very edge of the table. "Starbucks would be better, but I don't think they have one in this town…" she trailed off as she glanced out the window, looked out at the carnage.

She was once again hit with a foreboding sadness, feeling it deep, to her very core. She remembered all too vividly the footage she had seen from Tony's escape, the very first moment she had discovered that he was still alive...and the shock she had received afterwards, when she found out exactly how much he had changed.

In some ways, she envied him, because he had seen the world for what it was - not the cheap, plastic, perfect place that she lived in, where there was violence and horror, though it was nothing compared to what others saw...but the_ real_ world, where people were sought out and shot down, their lives stolen from them.

She hoped that some day, she would be able to make the difference that he was making, would have her chance to save the world - or, at least_ part_ of it.

"You find this town so interesting?" once again, Lee's voice brought her back to reality, and the turned her gaze from the window to stare at him, to see that he continued to watch her, to examine.

His eyes had changed, though. The curiosity inside of them was shifting, turning from a man watching a fish swim in its bowl to a man watching the birds in the sky, paying more attention.

Austin set her coffee down as she sighed. She wanted to look away, but she couldn't, because his green eyes held her, sucked her in; at least she wasn't blushing anymore, though, had gotten over some of her awe of him. "Not really," she admitted as the waitress passed by them another time, throwing them a look, though Austin only saw it out of the corner of her eye. "So far, this town is actually kind of boring. It's just...whatever happened here reminds me of something, as I said before. It's kind of a...sad memory," she watched Lee blink, his expression blank as he stared at her intently.

He was trying to figure her out. She had spoken.

Now, it was his turn.

"Do you find the town interesting?" she said as she picked her cup back up, tore her eyes away from his for a moment as she pretended that there was something in it, that she needed to stir her coffee. "Are you excited to be working on the project with my father and Jane? They're both brilliant scientists, you know. You're lucky," she looked back up to see that he was sitting back now, a bemused smile on his face, as if he had already figured out what it was that she was doing - which he probably had, because she was using his trick, was about the leave the conversation open on his side. "Though, I don't know what it is that they're working on…" she trailed off as she took another sip of coffee, waiting.

However, the waitress, ever busy, came back by then, her hip bumping into their table as she hurried on, carrying a tray full of food to a hungry family in the opposite corner. Austin opened her mouth to issue a warning as Lee's coffee cup drifted to the edge of the table, but she was too late, and it began to tip off.

Austin watched the cup as it fell, seeming to move in slow motion. She followed it as it tipped, turned upside down, and then -

She watched as it turned again, not a single drop of coffee spilling, before it gently landed on the ground, as if someone had set it there.

Austin found herself staring at the cup as the waitress came back, stopping at their table, flashing Lee a big smile as he sighed in an almost bored way. She heard it as the waitress asked Lee if he would like more coffee, after which he told her no, since it was completely awful, and by the way, did she have something better, but the conversation didn't truly register as she reeled in disbelief at what had just happened.

Some people might not have noticed it, might not have found it strange, but Austin was too observant - she had seen the way the cup had flipped, how it had landed, as if someone were guiding it.

She looked up to see Lee watching her yet again, a small, secret grin on his face.

"Is something wrong, Miss Selvig?" he asked in an airy tone, as if daring her to say yes.

But Austin shook her head, clearing it, deciding that, for now at least, she should leave the thought unanswered. "No," she said as she fought the urge to look back down at the cup. "I was just thinking about something…" she trailed off, trying to find something to say, a new conversation to start, when suddenly, the idea popped into her mind.

Her _father_.

Lee seemed reluctant to answer her questions about his work, or where he came from, so she should take the opportunity to ask what he knew about her father, shouldn't she?

Austin thought of the mythology books that her father had bought, all marked in the same place, and decided to start with that. Their conversations had been boring (and only half begun) up until now, so hopefully the books would be a more interesting subject.

"It's strange, but my father has been reading a lot about mythology. I saw his books last night - a great, big stack of them - when I arrived," Austin saw Lee's green eyes flash when she mentioned the books, saw him lean forward slightly, and she knew that she had a good topic on her hands.

She only hoped that he might know something, might be willing to divulge some information.

And if not...then she would have to settle for hearing him speak with that oh-so-sexy accent of his.

"Mythology?" Lee asked curiously, barely noticing when the waitress returned yet again, setting their food (as well as a new drink for Lee) on the table without a word, obviously hurt (or angered) that Lee didn't like the diner's coffee. "What of, if I may ask?"

Now, Austin realized, came the hard part. She didn't know how much Lee knew about her father, and she didn't want to skew his perception of the scientist, since he would soon be working even more closely with him, but…she wanted information.

And, she wanted someone to talk to, wanted to have fun - wanted to discover Lee.

Because he was interesting…not just handsome and distracting.

"Apparently, he's been studying Norse mythology," Austin replied as she leaned forward as well, falling into the conversation. She wondered if the mythology might have something to do with what her father and Lee were studying, what with the way that Lee's eyes lit up, flashing with amusement as well as curiosity, but she pushed the thought aside; mythology had nothing to do with science, and she knew it. "He seems pretty _obsessed_ with it, actually. All of his books are marked in the same place. It…kind of worries me," she sighed on that note, admitting the obvious.

She had never seen her father so disjointed. He was not only obsessed with his mythology studies, but he was wary, afraid - maybe of Lee, and maybe of something else.

But how did it all fit together, connect?

"Interesting," Lee intoned as he sat back, blinked, his eyebrows furrowing just a bit, as if he were trying to figure something out. In that moment, he didn't seem to be focused on finding information, and Austin felt as if she were getting a glimpse into his mind, into the real Lee. The moment ended quickly, however, and Lee's game face returned as he leaned forward again, absorbed in the conversation also. "Where, may I ask, were these books marked at?"

Despite the intensity in his eyes, Austin found herself grinning, trying not to laugh as she remembered, as her mind took her back. "My father used to love Norse mythology. He would tell me stories every night," she said, watched as the hint of curiosity returned to Lee's eyes, though they remained intense, if not amused. "I loved it, too. It was…before we went our separate ways…" she trailed off again before she blinked, not wanting to revisit that part of her past - the _ugly_ part.

The divorce. The change in her thinking. Her father's disappointment with her.

She didn't want to revisit _any_ of it.

"My father marked the books at the sections telling about my favorite god," Austin went on, remembering the many books and pages she had went through, seen, all marked where they told the stats and tales of Loki. "At first, I thought he was just being sentimental, that maybe he hadn't forgotten that I was coming to visit, after all," she recognized the bitterness in her voice, and she knew that Lee could hear it too, could probably see it on her face, and she saw something flicker in his eyes, something somewhat like sympathy, though it withered quickly. "but I was obviously wrong, and he was just researching," she set her cup down harshly then, another memory biting at her, this one recent.

She was still angry with her father for forgetting her, for making her feel stupid, like she didn't matter, and for embarrassing her in front of Lee. In fact, she was angry with a few people - her father, her mother, Jane. The only person who seemed to respect her as an adult was Tony, and even he could push her around at times, as with the Iron-Man shirt.

But Lee was _different_ - she didn't really know him, but already, she could see that.

"I have never held favor for a certain…god," Lee admitted after a moment, and Austin found relief that he wasn't asking her about her past, about the spat between her and her father, though she could tell that he was curious about it, as he seemed curious about many things. "But I have always found mythology to be…_entertaining_," his mischievous smile returned for the first time since that morning, and suddenly, Lee reminded her a bit of Loki.

What a strange coincidence that was.

"It _is_ entertaining," Austin nodded as she picked up a piece of the toast that she had been served, now somewhat cold, and bit into it; it wasn't bad, but not as good as she'd been hoping. "When I was a kid, I had a book that I would read over and over again. I liked the stories about Loki. He was my favorite - the one who my father is researching," she noticed Lee's eyes brighten when she mentioned Loki, and she almost wanted to laugh.

He had said that he didn't favor any one of the gods, but obviously he did favor one.

"He is rather interesting, and a brilliant sorcerer," he admitted, looking prideful, as if he were talking about himself, and Austin found herself smiling widely, recognizing that they had something in common. "Though I personally picture him being much more cunning than he is portrayed."

Austin took another bite of toast, finding that she was enjoying herself. The air of curiosity had evaporated a bit, and Lee didn't seem so engrossed in fingering information from her, and vice versa. Mythology was obviously a topic that they both enjoyed, as was Loki.

Austin nodded. "You seem to know a lot about mythology. Did you study it before you decided to become a scientist? Or is it a normal thing to study in…where do you come from?" she had asked before, but he seemed more willing to talk to her now, seemed to be viewing her as not a fish or a bird, but maybe a cat - a bit higher on the pet scale.

Lee leaned back slightly, propping his elbows up on the table to steeple his fingers as he grinned in an almost malicious way, sending a subtle shiver up Austin's spine. "_Asgard_," he replied, deadly serious, and for a moment, Austin nearly believed him.

But then she laughed again, if not nervously, though her thoughts drifted back to the coffee cup that was still on the floor, unspilled, unbroken, back to the possibilities.

Because possibilities were endless. As a writer, she knew that.

But, it was _impossible_ -

Wasn't it?

Austin was saved from her spinning thoughts, from the possibilities, by the sound of a horn, honking loudly. She looked up to see a white, beat-up van driving their way, coming towards the diner, and behind the steering wheel, in the driver's seat, she recognized Jane.

Jane's eyes were focused, and there was something odd about the way she was sitting, rigid, the way she was gripping the steering wheel tightly. And it worried Austin.

Her father's warning replayed in her mind.

"What is _Jane_ doing here?" Austin said aloud without even thinking, and that was the moment that everything changed.

She saw Lee's eyes as they moved towards Jane's van, the pure hatred in them.

She saw the look on Jane's face as the giant beam, a light-post once holding a light, came falling towards her.

She saw it as that very post, once standing straight, fell with no logical explanation.

And she saw it as the post hit Jane's van, as it crushed the front end of it, Jane still inside.

What happened afterwards was a matter of circumstance - the cars behind Jane's screeched to a halt, a few of them hitting one another, one of them hitting the back of the van itself. Jane had been at a light, had been about to cross underneath it, and so a car had hit her from the side as well, crashing into the driver's door.

Austin heard the horrible scream that ruptured through the air, and then she realized that it was her own.

And to her surprise, Lee stood, calm as ever, and quickly took her arm, pulling her forward and out of the diner towards the wreckage.

* * *

><p>As the beam fell, coming towards her, Jane thought of one thing -<p>

_Loki_.

And then -

_Thor_.

How had this happened to her? How had her life changed so suddenly, so quickly? She had never seen it coming, and though she was glad that it had changed, in some ways, it was often too much for her to bear.

And now -

_Austin_.

Austin was like a sister to Jane, had always been. She remembered the little Austin she had known, had helped watch over as her father and Erik had worked together, and she pictured the woman who Austin was now - a _woman_, not a little girl, though Erik kept wanting to treat her as one.

It was Austin whom she'd been trying to save, and now it was too late. Now, she was the one in need of saving.

Because of Loki. This was his fault. She_ knew_ it.

He was a horror. A monster. A _murderer_. There was no hope for him, and while he was in this world, no hope for it.

But then, Jane remembered Thor - how he had been when he'd first fallen to Earth, and how he had changed. And then, she wondered if maybe, just _maybe_, his brother could do the same.

And if that were true, then Austin - observant, intriguing, passionate, kind Austin - would probably be the best candidate to initiate that change.

* * *

><p>Austin stared down at her hands as people - others who were suffering, who were waiting - passed by, sat down at other seats, at other alcoves nearby. Overall, the waiting room was quiet, and yet the dead silence felt like the worst noise to her.<p>

It had been hours, and still, they hadn't heard everything. Austin had been there, Lee by her side, when the ambulance had come, when people gathering had dialed 911 on their cell phones, when help had been called. She'd followed the ambulance in her Jeep, unable to stay calm, nearly crashing into a few cars herself in her haste. She had tried to call her father, tried to explain to him, but the sense of urgency had been too much, the catch in her throat too tight, and he hadn't answered, anyway.

And then she'd found out why - he'd already been there, already been waiting.

The police had called him.

Once Jane had been admitted, her father had pulled Austin into a hug, Lee watching from the sidelines, but then he had left, gone to another part of the hospital. Austin hadn't wanted to be alone then, feeling too distraught, too anxious and worried, too angry at her father for leaving her, so when she had seen that Lee was about to follow, no doubt to question her father about his work, about what they were to do now, if he was to start early, she had once again acted without thinking -

She had reached forward and grabbed onto the sleeve of his jacket as he was walking away, taking the path her father had, gripping the sleeve of said jacket as if it were her only lifeline. And when he'd turned, green eyes staring down at her, she'd asked him to stay with her.

And, to her immense shock, after a moment, he had agreed.

That had been hours ago, what seemed like weeks, and still, he hadn't left her side. At first, she had worked to stop crying, and then she had begun staring at her hands, wondering how it had happened, replaying the image in her mind - just like with the coffee cup, there were so many things that didn't make sense.

Lee had been watching her the whole time, trying to find something in her expression, in her tears - though what, she wasn't sure.

But, she was sure he thought of her as a person now. After all, she had displayed just about every emotion in front of him since they'd met, even _cried_.

The waiting room fell into an even quieter hush as Austin finally looked up from her hands, immediately finding Lee's eyes, which tightened just a bit. She had stopped crying about an hour ago, and now she felt strangely calm, strangely…hollow.

And curious.

She wanted to_ know_.

So, the words came out without her bidding, something that seemed to happen around Lee.

"Why do you hate Jane?" she surprised even herself when she spoke, but she didn't flinch; her face didn't change, because it couldn't, didn't have the power to at the moment. But she felt emotion creeping back - anger, at Lee, for hating Jane.

Lee looked almost lost for words for a moment, before his expression drifted into a look of confusion, his mouth turning into a frown. "I beg your pardon?" he asked, as if he hadn't heard her.

But he _had_.

She had seen his eyes, so very green, shift.

He _knew_ what she meant.

Austin allowed a sigh to escape as her jaw tightened, and her anger intensified until it reached a boiling point, and then suddenly...evaporated, leaving her feeling exhausted. She was tired of his games and aloofness, tired of playing them, tired of trying to find information.

She was _tired_.

She wished she could return to earlier, when they had finally been able to break the ice, when they had been having fun in their conversation.

"We've been through a lot today, together," Austin admitted after a moment, eyes never leaving Lee's as she spoke, as seriousness filtered into her voice, as numbness took over where the anger had been. "so I don't want to play games, not anymore. I _know_ you hate Jane - I saw it in your eyes. And I want to know _why_."

It was only the tip of the iceberg, but she would take it, because it was _something_.

The confused look remained on Lee's face for a moment before it finally sunk in that she was serious - and stubborn to boot - and then he sighed slightly, before his frown became a small, somewhat amused smile. "You are more astute than I first gave you credit for," he admitted as his eyes gleamed again, and the smile grew just a hare.

"Yes, I _am_," Austin said, taking that as a compliment, her tone still deadly serious. "And you're obviously very good at hiding what you're feeling, and swaying a conversation, but that doesn't really matter now, because I want to know," she stopped then, swallowed, seeing something small - barely there, barely recognizable - something like pain drifting through those green eyes of his, before it abruptly vanished. She lowered her voice until it was a whisper. "There has to be a reason."

She was always searching for a reason, something to make sense of everything. It was a gift - or curse, depending - that she had received from her father. And since she had also received her mother's stubborn will, the "gift" was even worse.

Something had changed that day, shifted, and now she felt as if her perception of Lee had changed, too - now, he was less like a handsome god, and more like a person, someone she might be able to relate to, someone she might have met for a reason.

Someone who, once they learned to trust one another, she would enjoy talking to, just as she had earlier, yet with everything.

As she watched his eyes, she could see Lee debating, wondering if he should tell her or not, reveal the truth or not. And though Austin wanted to know, wanted to fill in the puzzle, piece it together while she tried to get her mind off of the fact that Jane may or may not have been living at the moment, she waited patiently, because she knew how hard it was to tell the truth sometimes.

Her waiting paid off.

"Jane Foster has…_wronged_ me, in a way," he said slowly, for once unable to look her in the eye, gaze instead trailing down to the table that sat between them, to the shining, glass surface of it. "She…changed someone I knew, and because of that change, my life changed as well, my…plans," Austin could tell that this wasn't the complete truth, but it was part of it.

She would break through his shell eventually.

"I'm sorry," she said after a moment, finding that she meant it. Lee's eyes found her again when she said it, widening for just a heartbeat, before his expression closed over, guarded. "I don't know the details, but it's hard when someone you care about suddenly changes, because you don't feel like you know them anymore," she wasn't quite sure if this was what Lee meant or not, but in her experience, that had been the case.

She had always loved Tony as a friend, though before he had been captured, she had often not agreed with him or what he did. So, afterwards, when he had come home as an almost completely different person, she had been devastated in a way, because she had felt as though she'd lost someone.

Though, of course, she loved the new Tony much more than the old one.

Lee looked as though he were contemplating whether or not she were being truthful before the small smile returned to his face, and, very softly, he muttered: "Thank you, Miss Selvig," and then, even softer:

"Austin."

* * *

><p>Erik couldn't seem stay still, again couldn't seem to breathe as he paced, back and forth, back and forth, this time across one of the hospital wings.<p>

_Jane_.

She was hurt, had been involved in an accident, and though the police had said that the accident was an odd incident, one of those freaks of nature, he didn't believe it for one second, because he knew the real cause behind it -

_Loki_.

Obviously, the vicious god had caused much more than mischief that day, much more than Erik had been expecting. When he had first gotten the call from the police, he had been expecting them to tell him about Austin, expected them to tell him that she was dead, his worst fears confirmed. He hadn't expected Jane.

Though, of course, she wasn't_ dead_.

He knew that, because he knew Loki, if only a little bit, knew that the evil god wasn't done with her yet, not that easily.

"Doctor Selvig," the voice surprised him into a jump as it sounded unexpectedly, and he turned to face none other than Nick Fury, director of S.H.I.E.L.D., who was leaning against the wall behind him slightly, dressed in his normal all-black configuration, his single eye fixed deadly on Erik, having appeared as though from thin air.

Erik felt panic creep into him when he saw the director, not quite sure what he should do, what he should say. He never had been very good at acting, something that Loki had already taken advantage of.

And speaking of Loki...was that why the director was there? Did he _know_?

Erik could only hope so.

"I heard that Miss Foster was involved in a car accident," Fury said as he pushed himself away from the wall, standing tall and erect, hands clasped behind his back, making Erik feel nervous.

Erik found himself swallowing hard, nodding, and then trying to breathe again. "Yes," he said, mind traveling back to Jane, hoping that no damage done was permanent.

"A bit suspicious, don't you think?" Fury asked, though he didn't waste any time in waiting for an answer. "We have determined that Miss Foster's accident was anything but. We think that someone attacked her purposefully, staged the accident," Fury stepped forward a few steps, eye never leaving Erik, who felt himself sweating. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about this, now would you, doctor?" he cocked his head to the side slightly, giving Erik a "_'fess up, already_" look.

Erik thought of the waiting room, of Austin, of Loki there with her, unbeknownst to his daughter, and he decided to lie yet again.

He had to keep her safe, and, for the moment, this was the only way that he could think of, because he wasn't sure of himself, wasn't sure of what would happen should he warn Fury, tell him about Loki, and he didn't want to be unsure when his daughter's life was on the line.

Erik sighed, rubbing his temples as Fury waited, albeit impatiently. "No, I have no idea," he lied, hoping that it sounded convincing. And then, to make it somewhat the truth, he added: "But I agree with you. I've been thinking the same thing, trying to think of who it could be," he ended his spiel with another sigh, feeling his shoulders sink, weighted down with everything he was being forced to carry.

He waited, hoped, and Fury finally relented, seemed to believe him.

"Keep your eyes open, doctor," Fury said seriously as he spun on his heel and began to stride off, boots barely making a sound as he walked. "This is not the time to fall asleep," his last words were cryptic, and Erik found himself wondering if Fury knew more than he was letting on.

_Probably_.

But then again, so did Erik.

* * *

><p>After much tossing and turning, Austin finally sat up on her bed, unable to sleep, unable to do anything other than think and worry and fret.<p>

Jane was alright - at least for the moment. The doctors had finally been able to make her stable, ensure that she would live through the night. They were still running tests to find out what exactly was wrong with her, but she was known to have at least a few broken bones.

Austin and her father hadn't spoken, leaving the hospital once they had learned that Jane was alright, and that they didn't need to be there any longer - Austin had protested, but for some reason, her father had been worried, hadn't wanted to be near the hospital or Jane. Austin had a strange feeling that he felt as though Jane's accident had been his fault, but since she hadn't actually spoken to him, seeing his closed-off expression, she wasn't sure.

Austin and Lee hadn't spoken since she had asked him why he hated Jane, since he had told her about the person - one of his family members or friends, she was beginning to think, from the look that had been in his eyes - that Jane had changed, accept to say goodbye. He had told her father, however, that he would come to the lab the next day, though her father had told him to come to the trailer instead, that he didn't need help at the lab quite yet, all the while appearing nervous.

Austin hadn't been able to sleep since she had laid her head down, one too many thoughts circling through her mind. First was of course Jane - if she was going to be alright in the end, if she had been afraid when the crash had happened, or if it had happened too fast for her to feel much of anything - but the second was the strange happenings from that day - the coffee cup, the broken beam.

Something odd was happening, though she didn't know how, and she didn't know what was causing it.

Austin tried to calm her thoughts as she stared at her laptop on the small, built-in desk that sat near the door to the trailer's only bedroom. Whenever she felt distressed or angry, upset or in need of a way to clear her thoughts, she always gained the intense urge to write.

And now, she had it again, had the urge to start writing her story (on the same token of which she remembered that she needed to call her mother, and that she wanted to call Tony to vent…though it would most likely be a one-sided conversation yet again).

But, what should she write about? It wasn't as if she hadn't had ideas before, but none of them had blossomed into a full story, and…

Austin closed her eyes and pictured Lee, the intense look that was often in those too green eyes of his. Then, she thought of the coffee cup, of the beam, how they had seemed to magically move, as if someone were pulling puppet strings, and then -

Jane, the accident, her father's worry, Lee's mischievous smile, her memories, the ruined town, and…

_The mythology book_.

Austin's eyes flew open as a story formed in her mind, her heart and thoughts happy to be focusing on something else other than Jane's accident as she stood, made her way to the books she had stacked in her room, grabbing her laptop from the little desk, and then making her way back to the bed, setting the laptop down as she opened a book up to its marked page.

From the page, the cartoonish Loki gave her a mischievous smile as she looked down and started reading, making mental notes as well as paper ones, getting up yet again to pull a pad from her laptop case. And, after some reading, she opened a new document on her laptop and started typing, letting the words carry her away.

She had found some inspiration at last.

* * *

><p>That night, Loki did something he had never done before - entered the abode of Erik Selvig without anyone knowing (usually, he simply stood outside, or just didn't care), though not to spy on the good doctor himself.<p>

No, he was there to spy (if it could even be called that) on Austin, to watch her, as he had been doing that day.

He appeared in the room that had expressly been marked hers without a sound, lip curling in disgust once he saw how small and ill-furnished it was. It really was surprising how pathetic mortals could be, how easily they could justify having nothing, or next to it. And the mortal's chamber was nothing - small, insignificant, barely holding a bed, on which the sleeping girl lied, sprawled out across it sideways, still in her day clothes.

In front of her there sat a oddly shaped box, part of it black, something that Loki recognized as a "laptop", which he had learned about from none other than the good doctor himself. Austin had obviously been using it, and then had abruptly fallen asleep before shutting it, thus turning the screen black. Next to the laptop lay a book, facing up, most of its pages worn at the edge, the page that was displayed marked with a yellow, square piece of paper, which was attached to the top of it.

_Austin_.

She was asleep. She was helpless.

He could have easily killed her then.

He could have easily killed any of them, really, the mortals, should he have wanted to. He could have appeared in any one of their homes, at any time, and slain them where they lied, done away with them. And the amusing part was that they would have never even known he was there. They would have simply ceased to exist.

But, no, he wouldn't kill her - not _now_, anyway.

Because, other than being an effective pawn, this mortal was…_interesting_. She wasn't like the others - the doctor and the hated Jane. She was instead observant, instead noticed things that they didn't seem to, and she was expressive, to an extent naive. She had even been able to play his game, turn the tables against him momentarily, though they had been easily turned again.

No, he wouldn't kill her now, because she was proving amusing, and if he really wanted to admit it to himself (which he didn't), he was curious to see if she would be able to uncover the truth about him, be able to uncover his past before she was erased. She had succeeded in gleaning some truth from him already, had earned an iota of his trust.

They were kindred souls, in a way, though she was still so far beneath him.

Loki cast one last glance at the sleeping girl's form before his eyes drifted to the open book that lay near her, and the figure it depicted, which won the book a malevolent grin before he suddenly vanished yet again.

It was insulting, what the mortals thought of him nowadays, but soon, they would see exactly how wrong they were, because soon, they would again fear him, and for good reason.

_Soon_.

But for now, he would continue tweaking the rest of his plan, his game - because the game was just now getting interesting, truly just now being played.

* * *

><p><strong>Hello, readers! Thank you for reading the newest chapter. This chapter was about sixteen pages long (it literally gave my hands a cramp), so I'm very proud of it, and I hope that you liked it, too. I honestly had a bit of a hard time deciding how to proceed with the story (one of the reasons why the update was delayed), but hopefully the direction meets everyone's hopes.<strong>

**Chapter dedicated to my lovely reviewers: _Cherry-888, taytayfanatical, Azura Soul Reaver, ShadowLark71, Petit Paraplui_. **

**Work is still busy, but I have a little more time now, so I'm hoping to (try to) finish this story up before The Avengers, or shortly after, because I have a story planned for it as well (yay, anyone?). I'll try my best, but I'm not promising anything, as my schedule is still busy. Who here hates work? (I don't hate it, but wish it didn't take so much time). **

**With all of The Avengers stuff going around - trailers, posters - I'm even more excited for May! I even managed to get to the store to buy my Loki and Thor figurines (still waiting to buy Cap, and trying to find Black Widow; I dearly love my new Loki). They are now sitting near my desk, feeding me inspiration for this story. I really hope the movie will be good (cross your fingers, please!). **

**Anyway, I'll get the next chapter up as soon as I can, and again, I hope you all liked this one! Leave me a comment, and let me know what you think - Fury appearing, Jane's accident, Austin's personality, Erik's decisions, Loki in general - or if you have any ideas/specific things you might like to see in this story. **

**Until then, **

**Cross~**


	4. Chapter 4: Trailing Through Trickery

The Science Of Mystery

_Chapter Four: Trailing Through Trickery_

Austin woke the next morning with a start, her eyes shooting open quickly as she gasped, as if she had been drowning and had then been suddenly saved. Her eyes darted as she sat up slowly, her limbs shaking, but the familiarity of her laptop, still lying open, and the books sitting near it calmed her, and she ran a shaking hand through her auburn hair, exhaling a straggling breath.

She couldn't remember the dream, but she knew that there must have been one, and that it must have scared her sleeping mind horribly to make her wake up the way she had. For a moment, she wondered if it had been a repeat of the dream she'd had the previous night - the dream of the cartoonish Loki that her father had been trying to convince Jane was real, was threatening - but she pushed the thought away immediately, because it was of course ridiculous. Even though that dream had left her wary, it hadn't scared her to death - not like this.

Whatever had invaded her mind the night before had been deadly, enough to cause her heart to pound the moment she woke up, but still...she couldn't remember what it was. Her mind must have been playing tricks on her; she supposed that was what she got for writing about the god of mischief.

Austin sighed again, trying to calm her still shaking body as she moved into a full sitting position and shut her laptop, thankful that she had plugged it in the night before as she'd been using it, so that it hadn't died. She then withdrew the green and golden flash-drive on which she had saved the pages she'd typed and put it back in her laptop case, which sat at the foot of the bed, deciding to put the laptop away later, since she would no doubt be using it again that night in another typing frenzy.

She expected her excitement over her new story - part science fiction, part mythology - to be renewed, eating away the scare from her nightmare, as she turned to the mythology book still lying open next to her laptop, Loki's page displayed, but instead of excitement, she felt nothing but dread creeping forward again.

In a frightened fit, Austin hastily closed the book, barely touching it for fear that it would reach out and bite her - or worse, free the cartoonish Loki. She hated feeling so afraid, especially since she had no idea why she felt that way, so as she turned away from the book to slide off of the bed, still in the clothes she had worn the previous day, she wracked her brain again, trying to remember what it was that she had dreamed, wanting to make sense of it.

And still, nothing came, but when she turned towards the spot next to her bed, she stopped, a deeper feeling of dread seeping into her veins.

Suddenly, her room felt...cold, as if something had happened that night to freeze it, and in the air there lingered an odd feeling. It made her hair stand on end, and though she couldn't explain it, she wanted nothing more than to leave the room.

Austin shook her head and stood, pushing her thoughts away as she started for the door to her bedroom, not wanting to let the dream (nightmare?) that she couldn't remember ruin her day, or her plans to continue the project that she had started. She decided to try and forget the odd, suffocating feeling that made her feel as though someone was trying to choke her.

But, when she opened the bedroom door, she jumped, encountering another feeling entirely.

"Oh!" Austin exclaimed as she jumped, the bedroom door shutting behind her firmly and almost nailing her backside, pushing her forward slightly. "I didn't know you would be here," she said as her mouth fell open slightly, and she stared at Lee, who sat at the small table near her father's "kitchen", pretending to be reading the newspaper, while he was really watching her father skeptically as the older man cooked, looking more than a bit awkward. "How long did I sleep, anyway? What time is it?" she tried not to find Lee's presence unnerving, but then again...he was Lee.

Austin felt suddenly self-conscious, still in her clothes from the day before, looking rumpled and ridiculous (just like the day before, when Lee had first arrived), her hair no doubt sticking out at odd ends, as Lee looked up from the paper (her father) and shot her a small smile before putting the paper down on the table in front of him and raising a coffee cup to his lips. "Good morning, Miss Selvig," he said airily, the tips of his mouth curling in amusement as he took a drink and then set the cup down, frowning slightly; she wasn't sure he liked her father's coffee any better than he liked the diner's. "I believe it is close to nine in the morning - not too late, by your standards, I am sure," he offered her a wider smile then, green eyes narrowing slightly, but the smile was somewhat condescending.

Austin didn't take any offense, though, because she had a feeling that condescending was his way of joking, and she didn't necessarily feel offended, anyway - years of spending time with Tony had made her impervious to almost any insult.

"I was up most of the night," Austin admitted as she shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot, glancing away from Lee to look at her father. She couldn't believe that he was making breakfast - cooking eggs, it seemed, though she wondered where exactly and when exactly he'd gotten them, since when she'd arrived, the only edible thing had been a microwavable meal, unless you wanted to count the beer that he liked to drink.

Austin had a feeling that Lee was about to ask her what it was that had kept her up, fishing for information just as he had that day before, but her father beat him to it.

"Up doing what?" he questioned as he turned to look at her, letting one of the eggs he was cooking burn as he frowned, as if she could do anything horrible alone, in a trailer. "Sleep is important, you know," he reminded, picking that very moment to play dad.

Austin shot him a glare, not caring when he frowned, flinching slightly, as if hurt by the accusation contained in it. "Really?" she said with a bit of sarcasm. "You think I would have noticed that," she added a yawn for extra emphasis, but then realized that the yawn was real - she was tired.

But, she wasn't about to go back to bed. Not after the nightmare she'd had, the one she couldn't seem to remember.

Plus, Lee would be joining her father in the lab in a few days, and then she would have plenty of time to write, to be by herself, since her father insisted on ditching her.

"Right, then," her father sighed as he turned back towards the eggs, lifting the pan to scrape the burnt ones into a nearby trash can before he reached for fresh ones to replace them. Out of the corner of her eye, Austin could have sworn she saw Lee smirk slightly, but she didn't look at him for fear she would start laughing - or burst into tears, one or the other. "By the way, Austin, your suitcase arrived this morning. Came from the airport," her father cast her a glance then, and in it she thought she saw an apology, if only a small one.

And something else - the strange, strangling fear from the day before still remained, though it was hidden.

Austin tried not to mind her father's screaming alert to whatever hidden danger lurked in her life, but she couldn't exactly ignore it when it overtook her father's eyes and again bored into her. She wracked her brain for what felt like the millionth time to try and figure out what it was that he was trying to warn her of, since he wouldn't just come out and say it, but once again, she was left with nothing - no ideas, no ties.

But she did believe that something was off. Her horrible dream (that she still couldn't remember) from the night before told her that, as did Jane's accident that she was sure wasn't truly an accident, since she had seen the beam that had caused it move as if controlled by a puppet master.

Once she had all of the pieces, she would put them together, but...she didn't have all of the pieces yet. There were still too many missing, too many things that didn't make sense.

Austin smiled slightly, trying to relay to her father that she understood - at least a little bit - before she glanced around to try and find her suitcase. It ended up being near the door to the little bathroom situated in the middle of the trailer, and suddenly, Austin felt mortified at the cramped space.

She really hated her father's trailer, his inability to live a normal life.

Austin sighed heavily as she stepped forward and grabbed onto the suitcase, unable to look at Lee, who was no doubt studying her closely, which seemed to have become his favorite pastime. "Thanks, dad," she intoned as she turned for the bathroom, tugging the suitcase along, not bothering to mention that she was going to get changed - no need to embarrass herself further, since she already looked like a train wreck.

"Do you want anything to eat?" her father called as she stuffed the suitcase into the tiny room, feeling relief spread when she reminded herself that the pathetic excuse for a living space at least had a shower; she was embarrassed to be dressed and rising late - compared to Lee, who once again looked pressed and pristine, and who was probably one of those insane people who woke before sunrise - but she wasn't so embarrassed that she was going to deny herself a shower.

Austin nodded as she turned to glance over her shoulder, noticing that Lee was back to reading (or, pretending to read) the paper as her father scraped a few eggs off the pan; these actually cooked without burning. "Sure, I'll have something," she said before turning, closing the door as her father opened his mouth to ask her what exactly she wanted.

She was still a bit angry with him, but she was grateful to him for making breakfast - though her anger at him wasn't what caused her to shut the door and turn to the shower, nearly moving in slow motion...that was due to her mind, which began to race again then, trying even harder to recall whatever nightmare she had had, whatever had made the beginning of this day so different.

* * *

><p>Erik cracked open another egg and swished it in the pan, breaking the yolk to prepare to make it scrambled, hoping that his daughter still liked scrambled eggs, since she hadn't been thoughtful enough to tell him what it was that she wanted (not that he had too much to offer, anyway; he had stopped by the store the night before to get something to make for breakfast, and had lost his train off thought the moment that he had seen a cube - a rubics cube, intended for kids, no doubt - down one of the food-less isles while making sure to get soap and shampoo for Austin). He didn't feel angry at her, though, because from the moment that she had come out of her room, he could tell that something was off - he may not have spent much time with his daughter in the last few years, but he could still tell when she was upset.<p>

As he used the spatula to scramble the egg even further, Erik took the risk of glancing at Loki, who still sat at the "table" located near the small kitchen, holding the newspaper up as his eyes scanned across it. To his surprise, Loki didn't seem to be paying attention to him, actually appeared to be reading the paper, inattentive now that Austin wasn't in the room anymore. Erik found this odd at first, and then he began to worry…

Whatever Austin was upset about...did it have something to do with Loki?

Before he knew what he was doing, Erik cleared his throat and looked up, immediately earning Loki's attention, as well as a raised, black eyebrow that accompanied an annoyed expression.

Erik swallowed the fear that bubbled in him before he could choke. "So…how are you two getting along?" he asked, indicating the bathroom into which Austin had disappeared with his head; he then mentally smacked himself at the stupidity of the question.

However Loki and Austin were getting along, it was all a front, a pretense - Loki was acting, scheming, playing a role. Erik knew that, and, in the end, Austin would know that, too.

Erik then wondered what would happen if his daughter were to get...attached to the evil god. The very thought made his skin crawl, and he mentally chided himself for not thinking of it sooner, not putting weight to the idea, the possibility.

How stupid he was, despite his brilliance. Loki would no doubt love to exploit any attachments.

Simply from watching Erik's face, Loki seemed to sense his thoughts, where they were headed. "I believe your daughter is rather...fond of me," Loki said after a moment, lips curling into that demeaning smile that Erik so loathed before he looked down at the paper again, as if the conversation were over.

And Erik supposed it was, because he couldn't make Loki talk.

He couldn't make Loki do anything.

But...maybe he could make the trickster a bargain. Maybe he could wager something, could give up more than he already had to ensure Austin's safety. Maybe he could do that much.

Maybe he could make up for his mistake, if only a little bit.

But...how?

It was something he would have to carefully think about, because one mistake, one flaw, would mean his - and Austin's - undoing. Loopholes were no doubt Loki's favorite things, and Erik was sure he more than knew how to exploit them.

"Interesting...article, is it?...in this paper," Loki caught Erik off guard after a moment, making the older (well, in appearance) man jump, the eggs he was scrambling nearly flying out of their pan and onto the floor. Erik looked up wearily just as Loki turned the paper to face him, displaying an article that made Erik's blood run cold.

On the front of the paper was a picture of Jane's destroyed van, a headline that told of her tragic, strange accident, that gave a few details as to what the officers thought had happened. Erik immediately thought of his conversation with Directory Fury the previous day, and then another, horrible thought occurred to him -

Did Loki know about Fury, know that Erik had talked with him?

No. He couldn't have. He had been with Austin, so there was no way…

Was there?

Erik suddenly felt sick as he swallowed thickly and turned away from his company, not trusting his face to remain expressionless, to not give him away. He scraped Austin's eggs off the pan as he mentally calculated the possibility that Loki knew that he had talked with Fury, before suddenly, he froze.

Loki began speaking again.

And was standing directly behind him.

The rogue god was so fast that Erik hadn't even heard him move, hadn't even sensed, and that made him feel sick all over again.

"I am curious as to how Miss Foster is faring," Loki said in a conversational tone as Erik forced himself to turn and look at his "master", though he kept his gaze downcast, pretending to be fixing the eggs on the plate that he held in his hand, using the spatula. "I think perhaps it would wise for Austin and I to pay her a visit," Erik nearly lost his balance then, feeling his control slipping even further.

He couldn't win.

He just couldn't win.

But then again, why had he ever deluded himself into thinking that he could?

Erik finally looked up to see Loki watching him like a hawk, and though it took all of his strength to do it, he managed a smile, nodding slightly. "That probably would be good for Austin," he admitted, because, at this point, it was more than apparent that he cared for his daughter, that he didn't care a lick for Loki. "And while you do that, I'll be...at work."

Yes, he would be at work, finding out more information on the Cosmic Cube, the tesseract - and finding a way to relay to Fury what exactly he was up against before time ran out, because it was running out quickly, more quickly than he would like to admit.

* * *

><p>Austin let out a long sigh as she combed her fingers through her hair before deciding to use her brush, pulling it from one of the compartments in her large suitcase as she debated on what to wear. She wasn't normally one to worry too much over her appearance, though she always tried to look nice, but now, it suddenly seemed more important than it had been before.<p>

Austin frowned, momentarily afraid that she was turning into her mother, who would spend at least an hour every morning deciding what to wear for the day, before she quickly brushed through her auburn locks and then fished through her suitcase, quickly deciding on a pair of dark jeans, a yellow undershirt trimmed with gold, and a V-necked, green sweater (though she wasn't willing to admit it, she had noticed that green seemed to be Lee's favorite color, so she was a bit more inclined to wear it). After slipping into her clothes, and trying not to take too much time scanning her appearance, Austin finally decided that she was ready, and proceeded to zip up her suitcase, feeling extremely grateful that it had arrived, so she wouldn't have to wear Tony's "I LOVE IRONMAN" shirt yet again.

Austin stopped with her hand on the doorknob, pausing before going back into the "real world" to examine her thoughts yet again. Pulling herself away from Lee and her father had let her examine the situation at hand more than she had been able to before, and had helped a bit to settle her restlessness and fear of the strange occurrences, not to mention her nightmare.

She still hadn't figured out what was going on yet, but it seemed that her father knew and couldn't tell her, and it had definitely become clear that there was more to Lee than originally met the eye.

When thinking that, Austin was momentarily shipped back to the day before, when Lee had been teasing her about being from Asgard, when they had been talking about her father's odd obsession with Loki. For a second, she thought of the possibilities, but then she pushed the thought from her mind, because it was ridiculous.

There was no way that Lee could be Loki. Gods didn't exist- well, not Norse ones, anyway.

Austin allowed a laugh to travel from her lips as she shook her head, and then opened the door to the bathroom, pulling her suitcase out behind her. The last thing she expected then was to see Lee look up at her from his paper and stop for a moment - but he did.

Austin didn't want to think that he was staring at her because he thought she looked nice - beautiful even - but the thought did cross her mind before she harshly shoved it away, offering Lee a faltering smile, which he returned after a moment, his smile filled with amusement at her reaction to his gaze.

"Miss Selvig," he greeted her again, as Austin propped her suitcase up against the wall nearest her, and then stalked over to the small table where Lee sat, more than hungry for breakfast, though she was loathe to sit so close to him, her nerves shaky yet again - and just when she thought that she had gotten over his charm.

"Here you are, Austin," he father came to the rescue (for once) as he handed her a plate and some coffee, before sitting down directly across from Lee with his own plate, rushing to fill the vacancy, earning a small glare from Lee as the younger man sat down the newspaper and took a swig off his coffee, mouth curling slightly into a frown, though he did continue to drink it.

Austin looked down at the breakfast - eggs, fried tomatoes, bacon, sausage, and a nearly charcoaled piece of toast that had some butter on it - and frowned, pushing the plate away. "You do realize that I'm vegan, right, dad?"

Her father nearly choked on his coffee as his eyebrows shot towards his receding hairline. "You're what?" he asked hoarsely as Lee frowned, setting his cup down, raising a thin, elegant eyebrow her way.

"Vegan," Austin repeated, making sure to keep her voice firm, no room for questions or arguments. For Lee, she added with a smile: "I don't eat meat, but I'll eat animal byproducts like milk and butter, though I don't eat those very often, either," Lee looked strangely awed by the idea, his other eyebrow joining the first in a look of surprise.

"I have never heard of such a thing. Where I hail from, it would be considered...strange, at best," Lee said as he looked down at her plate, examining the food on it. "I suppose you will not be partaking of your breakfast, then?" he sounded a bit confused, and so she nodded.

Austin had been eating the vegan way for years now, having adopted the diet shortly after her father had stopped seeing her regularly, though it had less to do with him, and more to do with her tastes. When Tony had disappeared, the diet had turned into a sort of fast, because she had spent more time watching the TV and internet for signs of him than she had eating. She'd lost a lot of pounds in those months, and had nearly been hospitalized, and it had taken some time to gain them back, but she had continued her vegan diet.

Her father looked at her as though she were crazy, frowning as he stuck his fork into the sausage on her plate, bringing it to his mouth. "You're going to kill yourself from lack of protein," he said around a mouth full of food as Austin glared at him, and Lee looked on in disgust, no doubt unappreciative of her father's manners.

"Will not," Austin intoned as she pulled her plate back towards her before he could grab another piece of meat from it, and began eating the eggs, making sure to take her time to chew them, to demonstrate the proper way.

Her father watched her for a moment, seemingly disproving still, before he too went back to eating, and Lee again picked up his coffee mug, working at draining it slowly. Austin noticed that Lee wasn't eating, and she wondered if he had eaten, or if he was simply skipping out on her father's cooking, but she didn't want to be rude, so she didn't ask.

She was, however, about to ask whether or not he would like to actually show her around the town that day, since they hadn't gotten very far with her tour the day previous, thanks to Jane's accident, when Lee suddenly set his cup down and turned towards her, fixing his too-green gaze on her face, making her heart skip a beat as her fork stopped midway to her mouth, and she froze.

"I was wondering, Miss Selvig, if you would care to visit Miss Foster today," he said, throwing her off guard, and from beside her, she heard her father choke on his coffee yet again.

Austin found herself lost for words for a moment, not quite sure what to say.

Lee had admitted the day before that he hated Jane, since she had wronged him, but now here he was, asking her if she wanted to visit Jane. He was being thoughtful, and she found it...sweet.

He definitely was different than the other guys she had met.

Then, she found herself smiling. "Yes, I would like to visit Jane," she said before she could catch herself, but as Lee's eyes darkened a bit, she quickly added: "If you really want to, that is. I don't want to make you feel uncomfortable or anything," and she didn't.

She didn't want him to drag himself to the hospital simply because she wanted to go, because he thought she would want to see Jane. Because though she did want to see Jane - Jane, who must have known what her father was hiding, and who had been somewhat like a guardian when Austin was growing up, even now, to an extent - she also cared about how Lee felt, what was happening with him.

The day before, he had sounded so…sad, not to mention angry, when he had spoken of how she'd wronged him, when he had told her of how Jane had changed someone dear to him. He had been angry in a way that she hadn't seen him angry up until then - a dark, seething anger that she was all too familiar with, that was also called by the name of "hurt".

He was hurt, though she didn't know the specifics, and she didn't want to cause him to hurt any more.

Lee seemed to study her for a moment, no doubt reading the honesty of her statement, before he smiled a small smile - a genuine smile, not condescending or amused or wicked; it was a smile that she found to be wonderfully handsome on him. "Thank you, Austin. I am extremely grateful for your consideration, but I believe that I will be fine," Austin smiled back at him when he said it, and she heard her father choke on his coffee a third time.

* * *

><p>Erik wasn't quite sure what to think as he sipped the last bits of his coffee, watching Austin and the in-disguise Loki drive away in the Jeep, off to visit Jane.<p>

Something was...different, though he couldn't put his finger on what exactly it was. Something had changed - the way the two interacted was different, almost like they were friends, almost as if Loki might actually care (a little bit) about Austin, though Erik knew better than to believe that.

Loki didn't have any friends, didn't want any. Especially not friends that were human, since he looked down on them. He didn't, and probably couldn't, care about anyone; there was no room in his heart for anything but revenge, and the domination that went with it...if he even had a heart.

But, no matter how hard Erik wracked his brain, he couldn't think of another word for what he had seen, the easy sort of conversation that had radiated between the mischief god and his daughter. It was odd, because Austin seemed all too well aware of the true meaning behind Loki's words, and yet, she didn't seem disturbed by them, and she seemed to be able to read his expressions; the only thing she didn't seem to know was who he was, the front he was putting on...but maybe she had suspected it.

Erik doubted that she would ever put any weight to the theory, though, because it didn't make logical sense. Erik himself hadn't believed that Thor was who he said he was until he had seen proof - so why should his daughter, who operated on logic just as much as he did, think any differently?

Erik sighed as he drowned the rest of his drink in one big gulp, telling himself that he needed to prepare for the day ahead of him, because he had a lot of work. Not only was he going to have to keep up his end of the ever-worsening deal by studying the Cosmic Cube, the tesseract, but he was also going to have to think of a way to relay this oh-so-sensitive situation to S.H.I.E.L.D. without endangering Austin.

But, Fury was already looking for Loki, so...maybe he could push him in the right direction? It certainly wouldn't be his fault if the director and his agents put the pieces together by themselves, with the help of some "anonymous" tips. He wasn't the only one who knew about Loki - Jane did, too, though he was loathe to put her in any more danger.

No, if it came right down to it, he would confess, and he would take the consequences, but...he was hoping that things would be solved before then, and that he would be free again.

And that, above all, Austin and Jane would still be living.

* * *

><p>"Are you really sure you're okay with this?" Austin asked as her hand hovered over her seatbelt's buckle, just about ready to press the button and unlatch it.<p>

The car ride - which had been full of music, this time by David Gray, and silence on their parts - was now over, and her and Lee sat in her Jeep in the hospital's parking lot, watching people as they passed by, all of them going into the emergency wing. Jane had not been moved, since the hospital was smaller, and the Emergency Room and ICU often butted heads, so they would be going to the same waiting room and, once they were admitted to see Jane, the same hospital room as well; Austin had called ahead to find out where Jane was.

Austin shifted uncomfortably in her seat, Lee's eyes traveling to her face, probing. "We can still turn around, you know. I haven't even taken the keys from the ignition," it was a pathetic attempt at a joke, roused by an odd nervous feeling, but it gained a small chuckle from Lee, making her smile.

"No, I believe that will not be necessary," Lee said as his eyes traveled from her face to the hand itching to unbuckle her seatbelt; she noticed then that he wasn't wearing his, had maybe never been. "Shall we be going, then?" he asked, seemingly in a rush.

Not that Austin could blame him; he still hated Jane.

But, he was willing to visit her, and it was on good terms, so that had to count for something; maybe he wanted to hear her side of the story. Austin tried to erase the image of the look of utter loathing that had been on his face the day before when she had spotted Jane's van, pointed it out, but it lingered as she finally unbuckled her seatbelt, and she sincerely hoped that, once they entered the hospital, Lee wouldn't go crazy and start yelling, or worse…

She didn't want to think that he could be capable of that, that he would do something like that. But, if he were to, she would understand…

Lee opened the passenger's side door, about to exit the vehicle, but Austin stopped him, though she hadn't planned on speaking.

She had never been one to relay her problems or feelings to people, unless she was angry. Her dad had always been buried in work, even before her parents had divorced, and when she had seen him, he'd been a bit distant emotionally - though she'd known that he loved her, that he cared. Her mother was the exact opposite, always throwing her emotions around, and Tony was a bit of a drama queen (well, king) as well, but Austin had always found their constant relay of emotions (or sarcasm, in Tony's state) to be annoying, so again, she had stayed in her shell.

But now...well, she didn't know why, but there was something about Lee that made her feel as if she could tell him the important things, as if he would listen, understand. After all, they shared a common ground, even when it came to Jane -

"You know, I used to hate Jane, too. I still do sometimes," Austin admitted quickly, the words flowing from her mouth, surprising even herself. She watched as Lee abruptly stopped, gaze turning towards her yet again, displaying something that looked and felt like pain for a brief moment before it was covered by his ever-present curiosity. Not quite sure where to continue, Austin added. "I don't hate her as much now, but when I was younger I did. And, even now, it's hard not to blame her for things…" she trailed off then, a worm of worry winding its way into her heart as Lee's expression became strangely unreadable, as if he weren't quite sure what to think.

Maybe she shouldn't have said anything, after all. It was definitely inconsiderate, now that she thought about it. Lee must have been having a hard time being there, whether or not he had agreed to come.

The pause in speech felt like a lifetime, and in the silence, another feeling crept over Austin, one she knew all too well -

Fear. The fear of not being accepted.

It made (some) sense that Lee hated Jane, but her? Jane was her father's best friend if she were to be completely honest, and, in some ways, his pride and joy. Jane had been there for Austin when she was younger, had always looked out for her, and she was there for her now as well. It made no logical sense, looking from the outside, for Austin to hate Jane.

But she did.

Sometimes.

She really couldn't help it.

But, what was Lee thinking? For once, she couldn't read his eyes, blank as they were, staring, and it scared her to think that she was clueless, know that he may be thinking bad of her.

They may only have just met, but she liked Lee, more than she wanted to admit.

Without thinking about what she was doing, Austin turned, opened her door, and hopped out of the Jeep, not even bothering to wait for Lee as she headed towards the hospital. It wasn't that she was angry - just scared, and she was too chicken to stay and see what he had to say, stay and see if he would trash her or not.

It may have been irrational, but she was scared, because she didn't think that she could live with anyone else's disapproval at the moment - she already had her father's, Jane's, and, to some extent, her mother's.

The sound of the passenger's side door closing softly drifted to her ears, and, much too quickly, Lee was by her side, barely making a sound as they walked across the pavement. Austin jumped sightly when she saw him, but she tried not to let it show as she glanced at him, sneaking a peek.

Now, instead of blank, his eyes were...confused, contemplating - though not in the normal way. He almost looked disbelieving, as if he couldn't believe what he had heard.

Austin felt her heart shrink, beginning to bleed.

"Tell me...what caused your hatred of Jane?" Lee asked after a moment, voice quiet and strangely reserved, and Austin stopped abruptly, Lee almost running into her.

Fear coursed through her as she thought - of her father, of her mother, of Tony, even, none of whom had understood when she had told them why she disliked, hated Jane. She had never talked to Jane about it directly, because when she had been younger, she had hated even gazing at the older woman's face, and as she'd gotten older, she'd come to accept that she wasn't her father's first, his prized child, even though Jane wasn't technically his.

But Lee wasn't her father, her mother, or Tony. He was...different. So, would he understand?

Austin opened her mouth to speak, preparing to tell him the truth, feeling it beating at her chest, begging to be said, but fear won out in the end, and she instead shook her head, looking down at the ground, away from his very, very green, penetrating - begging - gaze. "Sorry I said anything," she mumbled, a frown on her lips, before she sighed and looked up again, seeing that he was frowning as well, no doubt unhappy that she wouldn't explain. "Let's just...go in and see her, get it over with."

Lee seemed to study her face for a moment before he nodded slowly, something like pity flashing through his gaze before it disappeared abruptly. "Very well," he said, but then, before either of them could take a step, a loud ringing was heard, and he pulled a long, sleek iPhone from his coat pocket, looking down at it as if it were foreign, and he was trying to remember how to use it. "If you would excuse me a moment? I'm afraid that I must take this call. Shall I meet you inside?" he looked up at her, raising one thin, black eyebrow, and Austin felt her heart sink instead of bleed.

She only hoped that her father wasn't calling Lee, begging him to know what was going on. She hadn't thought of it before, but it was a possibility that her father was using Lee to check up on her, just as she was planning to ask more questions about what her father was doing, why he was acting so strangely. Though, when she thought about it, she didn't think that Lee would be so eager to spy on her.

Still…

"Sure," Austin swallowed thickly as she nodded, the weight in her chest increasing. It sounded stupid, but besides the fact that she didn't want her father to be calling Lee, and that she hoped he wouldn't look down on her for hating Jane, she really didn't want to be without him at the moment. She wasn't sure if she were ready to face Jane, to face the music, to see what her father's assistant might say. She didn't know if Jane had seen the odd occurrence that had damaged her car or not, and she wasn't sure if Jane would tell her the truth, tell her what her father was hiding - or how she would react to what it was; Lee felt like her lifeline. "I guess I'll see you in a few moments…" Austin trailed off as Lee nodded, and she turned to go, her legs suddenly feeling shaky.

The feelings from that morning, brought on by the nightmare, were creeping up suddenly as she pondered the possibilities - that Jane might have seen what she did, that something crazy, supernatural might have been occurring, that her father's worry was connected to it, that Lee hadn't been joking when he'd told her he was from Asgard - but Lee's voice broke through her thoughts, turning her back towards him.

His phone was still ringing, and he was no doubt going to have to call whoever it was back, but there was a small, sincere smile on his face as the wind blew, threatening to displace his hair. "I would not judge you so severely for loathing Miss Foster, Miss Selvig," he said, and then abruptly stopped, correcting with: "Austin."

Austin smiled back as she nodded and then turned again, headed towards the doors to the hospital, feeling a bit more stable now, thinking that when Lee said it, her name seemed to have a special sort of ring.

His eyes, they had been honest, as far as she could tell - it didn't seem like he would judge her quickly. And so, as Austin walked into the hospital, the sliding doors hissing closed behind her, she felt some of her fear vanish, because she thought that maybe - just maybe - if she told the truth, somebody would finally be able to understand.

* * *

><p>Loki watched Austin intently, categorizing her movements, until she disappeared in through the doors of the hospital, after which he tore his gaze from her, looking down at the iPhone in his hand - which disappeared a moment later, as if evaporating into thin air, taking its annoying, electronic sounds with it.<p>

It was fake, of course, as was the call that he had to take, but the mortal was none the wiser. He had to admit that her near-confession had him curious, wanting to know more - actually caring - but he had something else that he wished to do before he pried the information out of her slowly, let her speak what she needed to say.

Loki's eyes traveled up the length of the hospital until his gaze fell on the third floor where, he knew, Jane Foster's room was, sitting there, waiting for him. He remembered how to get there, the room's number, and, a moment later, there he was, standing outside of it, waiting, not even having to take the elevator or stairs.

No one saw him, because he didn't want them to. Not yet. Now was not the time to be seen, though that time would come soon.

Soon, the mortals would have no choice but to look at him, to bow down, and they would be better for it.

Loki's green gaze landed on the door to Jane Foster's room, which was open, ajar, a man in a long, white coat hovering over her bed, talking, checking off things - notes, no doubt - on a long, thick piece of plastic that he held in his hand, obviously not in possession of the mind to remember everything. Jane herself was propped up in the bed, dark circles under her eyes, her hair strewn around her hair, appearing uncomfortable as well as irritated.

Loki would much rather her expression be portraying pain, but, for that, he would have to wait.

Just a little bit longer.

Various workers, all in ridiculous clothes that were ill fitting and all too bright, walked past him without a glance as he waited, quickly growing impatient. The man in white seemed to be droning, adjusting his large, overly thick glasses, but Loki reminded himself that patience came with every scheme, no matter how much he did not wish to be patient with this woman he so hated; anything else, he could remain patient easily, knowing his plans would be fruitful in the end, but this...it was difficult for him, because he wished to take Jane Foster and break her.

Finally, the man in white smiled, looked up, and bid Jane Foster goodbye, saying that a "nurse" would be by in about an hour to run some menial tests, check on Jane's progress. Jane Foster smiled and thanked him, but her smile was flat.

The man in white passed by Loki without seeing him as he exited, just as the others did, and didn't even notice when the long piece of plastic he was holding - plastic that had papers clipped to it, Loki realized - disappeared from his hand, and then from view itself.

Loki glanced down at the papers briefly before he looked back up, set his sights on the hated woman, and started forward towards the room, a loud beeping sound assaulting his ears.

No one noticed the door to Jane Foster's room close, just as no noticed when the look of annoyance on her face turned into a look terror, because they couldn't see it.

But Loki could, and it made him grin maliciously.

* * *

><p><strong>Hello, everyone! Thank you for reading! This chapter was a bit shorter than the others, but that's because I split it into two. I'm not finished with the second half yet, but I'm working on it. I'm still hoping to finish this story by May, but we'll see, because work is pretty insane again. There are only three chapters left, though, so I'm pretty optimistic. And then, of course, there will be the sequel, set during the Avengers.<strong>

**This Chapter Dedicated To My Wonderful Reviewers: _Cherry-888, BritishIsBetter639, Azura Soul Reaver, Rhythmic5_. **

**I really hope you all enjoyed it! Please leave me some feedback, so I know what you think! **

**Cross~**


	5. Chapter 5: Playing With Power

_The Science Of Mystery_

Chapter Five: Playing With Power

Erik was reminded painfully of the fact that he should keep his focus on what he was doing - on the Cube, the tesseract propped up in the machine in front of him, which kept it both secure and somewhat stable - and not allow his attention to divert to the other things going on in his life as a long, blue, tendril reached out from the object, sending a shockwave through his hand as it touched the skin.

Erik let out a painful hiss as he pulled his hand away, examining it for injuries, though, oddly, there were none; in fact, it looked as though nothing had touched him, though he knew that something had. He was once again in his lab, located in the New Mexico S.H.I.E.L.D. operations, studying the Cube that had become both his life, and the reason for his worries. And though he was attempting to concentrate, since he found the tesseract fascinating, he couldn't help but think of Austin, of Jane.

How were they, what were they doing, and would they live to see the next few days, the next few months, the next few _years_?

That last thought - of the years, of the future - made Erik pause as he pulled the swivelling chair near him over, and hastily set down before he could collapse, feeling the blood drain from his face. Though the idea had been there, lurking at the back of his mind, he had never truly given weight to the question he was thinking of now -

What if Loki _won_?

What if he had his way, and gained control of the Earth? What would it be like, and how would life - his, Austin's, Jane's - change, if they lived to see the end?

What was it that Loki truly had in mind for him and his daughter, when that time came? Erik knew that, when he had made his deal with Loki, the rogue god had promised him esteem in the new world that he would create, a position of power in the sciences, a chance to study things that were, right now, far beyond the human race. But, had that been a _lie_?

Probably.

Most _certainly_.

So, what would Loki do with him, really, if Erik were to continue forward as he was - not that he had much of a choice, because if he wanted to protect Austin, he would have to do what the god wanted, or else she would be destroyed...

Though...he would probably eventually destroy her, anyway, so what was Erik fighting for? Could he truly say that doing Loki's bidding, when, in the end, his daughter would probably end up dead - or _worse_ - was the right thing to do? He may have been saving Austin for the time being, but overall, he was condemning both her and the other occupants of the Earth, wasn't he?

Erik's head fell into his hands as he processed this, or tried to. He was at a loss now, completely confused as to what he should do.

He couldn't protect Jane. He couldn't protect the world.

And he couldn't protect Austin.

In fact, the only thing that was keeping Erik sane at the moment was studying the tesseract - that, and the odd sense of friendship he had seen between his daughter and the trickster that morning. It seemed that Loki at least liked Austin a little bit, be she mortal or not, so perhaps she had a chance of surviving, after all...for the time being.

Erik stook his head as he pulled it from his hands, which trembled heavily, reacting to his emotions. He couldn't afford to think of this now. He had to keep studying, to burry his thoughts in something that would, at least for now, save him from insanity. He still planned on telling Fury of Loki; he just needed the right time, needed Austin to be gone. He simply needed to be patient, before he hatched his plan.

God, he was sounding like Loki again.

Erik shook his head another time, before he stood up, and looked down at the Cube. It was still sitting there, held in the clutches of the machine, but it now seemed brighter than it had been before, almost entrancing. Erik didn't like to admit that he thought of the tesseract as more of a living being, more of a friend waiting to be discovered, than a relic, but he _did_.

The tesseract had no doubt been to many places, seen many things, and it itself was a marvel.

Erik picked up an instrument - a long, metal one that he had been prodding the Cube with - and reached towards the tesseract yet again, being sure not to get his hand too close this time, not wanting to earn another sting from one of its blue tendrils. His thoughts strayed to Austin as the instrument neared the Cube, to how he wished that she were there, working with him, how he wished that she had become a scientist, but those thoughts were shattered a moment later as another tendril erupted from the Cube, catching his hand, wrapping around it, and he felt darkness overcome him.

But not before he saw something - a vision, a picture, a memory. It was Austin that appeared in his mind, her eyes wide and understanding, and then, a strange, feminine, nearly alien voice whispered, before unconsciousness took him.

"_Austin,"_ it said, and then:

"_Perfect." _

* * *

><p>Loki fixed his gaze on the hated Jane Foster before he spoke, watching as her fear escalate as the truth sunk in, as she was reminded of who he was, why he was there, relishing in the terrified look on her face, the utter hopelessness.<p>

_Yes_.

This was it, what he had wanted to see.

A shame, it was, that he couldn't just destroy her now. But, no, that would be too kind, and kindness, on her, would be wasted.

That, and Loki wasn't known for his kindness - not anymore.

"Miss Foster," he finally spoke, and he saw her shiver, saw her shrink back into the sheets that surrounded her, her brown eyes nearly tearing. He then took the liberty of stepping forward, of stalking towards her, the odd piece of plastic, containing the notes that he had stolen from the man in the white coat, grasped tightly in his right hand, nearly being crushed. He saw Jane tear her eyes from him, casting a desperate look around, and he wanted to laugh - and then, he did, a low, amused sort of chuckle. "Do not attempt to alert them, Miss Foster. I am afraid that they cannot see me at the moment, and," he reached the side of her bed then, towering over her, and her terrified eyes rested on him yet again, giving him power as he tilted his head at her, his mouth forming a malicious grin. "I am sure that you would not wish for them to think you both incapacitated, and _insane_," his grin stretched so far, his teeth showing, that it nearly hurt his mouth, but he didn't care.

Because it was worth any minimal pain he might feel, seeing the look that was in her eyes now, seeing what he had reduced her to - her, this woman who had so thoroughly changed his brother -

No, who had changed _Thor_.

Loki had to remind himself that they were not brothers, not anymore, not ever. And yet...he couldn't seem to stop referring to Thor as "_brother_" in his mind. It would, perhaps, take time to change the way that he saw him, to fully pull the once brutish, now changed man from his heart...

No, that was a lie.

And Loki was a liar, but even he couldn't lie to himself - not about this, not about Thor. He knew that, deep down, he couldn't stop from calling Thor "brother", because he still loved him as such, perhaps always would, Thor being changed or not.

But that didn't mean that he held any love for Jane Foster, or what she had done to him, who wrongs she had committed.

Loki was momentarily surprised to see Jane's face harden, a strong, courageous look overcoming her as her expression hardened, though her eyes were still on the verge of tears. "Wh-what do you _want_ with me?" she whispered, all too aware of the cameras that were no doubt focused on her, of the people who were monitoring - who didn't need to see her speaking to herself, since Loki would remain unseen to all but her.

Loki felt anger well in him with her defiance, and it took nearly everything he had not to reach out, place his hand around her neck, and choke the life from her, ending her now. "What do I _want _with you?" he asked through gritted teeth, and then forced himself to relax, turning from her for a moment, glancing down at the plastic board held in his hand, at the information contained on it. He scanned it for a moment, realizing that it told him of Jane Foster's medical condition, and scowled, finding that the crash she had been involved in hadn't hurt her nearly as much as he'd hoped it would; there was nothing to be done about it now, though, because if he caused her more hurt - aside from simply killing her - the odd healers of the establishmet would become...suspicious, and he wasn't ready to reveal himself quite yet. Loki let out a pent-up breath, and the papers and their holder disappeared, magically returning to the man in the white coat who had been carrying them. "It is rather simple, Miss Foster - I wish to cause you pain. You _must_ know this," he said, completely calm now, as he turned back to the hated Jane.

He was surprised, and momentarily annoyed, to see that she was more composed now, though her eyes were still frightened. "Cause me pain?" she asked, her voice thin, and then, in an angry tone, she said: "Haven't you done that enough? Haven't you caused_ enough_ pain with Erik, with me, with Thor? How much _pain_ is going to leave you feeling _satisfied_!" she shouted, and Loki realized that, now, she didn't care whether or not she were seen shouting to herself, whether or not they thought her crazy; she simply wanted to put him in his place.

And it i_nfuriated_ him.

And so, he created yet another illusion, making Jane - the _real_ Jane - disappear as well, pulling her into the obscurity that he was in, projecting a mirror image of her into the "real" world, where she fell asleep, and was dreaming; the healers would no doubt think that she had been asleep the whole time, in a half-state of consciousness, and would discard her shouting as nothing more than a negative reaction to her condition.

But now, the real Jane was on _his_ ground, and he could talk to her freely.

He could threaten her.

"How much pain?" he asked, echoing her question, his voice sounding much more calm than he felt. "Oh, you have no inkling, Miss Foster," he said as he strode forward yet again, earning more fear from Jane, which he fed off of as her large, brown eyes watched him walk, watched him sit on the edge of her bed, as if he were a friend there to comfort her, instead of a monster who wanted her dead. "I aim to cause you more pain than you can imagine, and then, to claim what I deserve," he said as an eerie smile crept onto his face, as he imagined her end.

It would be sweet, his revenge, and it would be long. And then, once she was gone, he would focus on his next target, who was already caught in his web, and would destroy him, as well.

The pieces were all falling into place, and, soon, he would have those he hated gone, and would rule the world that he so looked down on, would cause the mortals to see the error of their ways; they would praise him for this, would love him, and he would finally be esteemed.

"Fine," Jane's tone surprised him yet again, once more defiant, but also definitive - she had decided that she would let him end her, would let him take her life, something that he definitely didn't want to hear; he wanted her to _fight_, to _plead_, to _beg_, or his victory over her would not be nearly as sweet. "You can do whatever you want. I don't _care_," Jane said, her voice low and serious, as she leaned towards him, wincing, though her gaze was strong. Loki fixed his eyes on her, anger causing him to tremble, and hated her all the more. "You can destroy me. You can make it painful. I don't _care_ - but," her voice was firm then, commanding, though Loki had no intention of listening to her; in fact, he was debating on whether or not he should silence her pathetic attempts at controlling him; surely, she didn't really need her voice. Jane leaned forward so far then that she was only a few feet from him, her bruises and hurt limbs all the more visible. "you leave Erik and Austin _alone_, do you hear me? Or I will tell everyone I know who you are, where you are, and they will destroy you - all before you can kill me, sitting here in this bed, they'll _know_," the way her voice dropped at the end reminded him of a mother wishing to protect her children, and the irony made him laugh, though his anger still burned.

Jane Foster, this mortal, thought that she could tell him what to do? She was pathetic - a disgusting, vile thing that would only live a breath compared to him.

He would put her in her place; she had tried to do this to him, but she had failed, and he would show her how it was truly done.

"You wish me to leave them alone?" Loki asked somewhat innocently, leaning back and closing his eyes for a moment, as if he were debating her offer; he knew that she was relieved to see this, though it was all a lie. In that moment, he thought of Austin, the mortal waiting downstairs for him, and, for a reason that Loki couldn't put into words, the image of her face calmed him somewhat, though not enough to erase his hatred of Jane, which returned full force when he opened his eyes, saw that she thought she had won, saw her begin to relax.

Oh, the utter fool.

The next moment found Loki's face close to Jane's, found his hand would around her neck painfully, found her gasping for air as his angered eyes seared through her, causing the tears that had been in her eyes, that had vanished, to form yet again. "Here is what I shall do, you pathetic creature, for your insolence. If you do not do as I say, I will end them - I will use my power to cause Erik Selvig to fall to his death, but only after he witnesses what I deal his daughter," Loki felt triumph course through his veins as he saw the look of utter, complete horror that occupied Jane Foster's eyes in that moment, as he mentioned Erik - and even more so when he mentioned Austin; this triumph was mildly tainted when he tried to picture himself actually hurting Austin, and was appalled by what his mind concocted. "She is rather fond of me, you know. I should enjoy toying with her emotions before I end her - but only after I've ruined her completely," he said, and then he abruptly let Jane go, the weakened mortal falling to the bed as he stood, gasping for air as tears and sobs wracked her body.

Loki turned away from her yet again as his mind raced over what he had just said, what he had just promised. He knew that Jane wouldn't dare defy him now, and he was glad for it.

"And you," he continued, voice tight with viciousness. "If you should so much as think of - what is it that you mortals say? 'Turning me in' - then I will save you for last, and I will make you witness not only the destruction of your friends," he bit out the word, and turned back to look at her and her wide eyes. "but also the takeover of your world, and, as I am sure that he will attempt to stop me, the death of my brother, as well," Loki saw Jane's eyes widen as he mentioned Thor, watched every ounce of courage that she had amounted vanish in that instant, with those words.

And he felt himself rejoice, though, somewhere in the depths of his heart, something crumpled, becoming broken. What it was, Loki didn't know, but he wasn't about to let petty sentiment stop him now, so he pushed it aside.

"You're a monster," Jane Foster managed then, her whole body trembling as more tears fell, as her voice became harsh, unbelieving. "You're a _monster_!" she shouted at him then, not bothering to hide her hate, though it was nothing compared to her fear.

And Loki nodded, agreeing. "Yes," he said, somewhat quietly. "I am, Miss Foster. I have always been, though, until recently, I did not know it," a memory came to mind with those words - the memory of his father - no, _Odin_ - telling him the truth, telling him what he had already expected, but had hoped was not true; he had been brought up to think of the Jotuns as monsters, and then he had learned that he was the very monster that the Asgardians so loathed; and now, he was simply fulfilling his heritage, proving them right, proving that he was indeed a monster.

Though, the only thing that Loki hated more than Jane, more than Thor and than Odin, was _himself_.

He hated the monster that he was, and yet, there was nothing that he could do to change it, and so he continued on, continued to grow worse, continued to try and make others see the majesty underneath his monstrosity, even though he doubted he would like himself any better, in the end.

Jane's mouth fell open, as if she were about to say something else, but then closed again as more tears fell, as she struggled for another breath. And so, Loki filled the silence, beginning to pace across the space. "What I require of you, Miss Foster, is _silence_," he began, the tone of his voice filling the room, nearly drowning out the sound of the beeping machine that was attached to Jane, no doubt measuring something. "I will, in a few moments, bring Miss Selvig up to this room for a visit, and you shall tell her _nothing_ - not even a hint of who I am, what I want, your past with my brother, or what has transpired here," he cast her a pointed gaze and, looking somewhat tired now, Jane slowly nodded, assenting. "You will keep in contact with your organization, should they call, and will not breathe a word to them, either. You will live with this conversation, with your knowledge, and it will _haunt_ you, for as long as I deem that you shall be kept alive to suffer for your crimes. _That_ is your punishment," he knew that Jane didn't think that she had committed any wrong, and no doubt wanted to ask him why he hated her so much, but she kept her mouth shut, as he had instructed her to, obeying quite easily.

Loki's eyes found the clock that was attached to the wall by Jane's bed then, reading the time, feeling himself sigh at the sight of it. Though he would have loved to have stayed and threatened Jane some more, seen her squirm again, he knew that it was integral to move forward with his plan - that, and he wanted to return to Austin, wanted to know her secret loathing of Jane, and the reason for it.

Loki couldn't help but remember his idea that they were kindred, in a way, though she was still mortal, still beneath him -

Though _special_; she was special, and so very different than the others, so far above them. Loki had never before thought this possible, had always scorned the humans, but...in Austin's case...

Well, she seemed to be one of a kind, more observant than the other mortals, who let life pass them by without noticing much of a thing - this was perhaps one of Loki's biggest complaints about the mortals, aside from them being weak and shortly lasting; they never noticed anything around them, never took marvel in the world, never examined it.

Loki looked back at Jane's face, and saw her tremble when his gaze landed on her, which earned her a smile from him - a cruel, stretching smile, much like a vicious Cheshire Cat. "Now, to fetch Miss Selvig," he said offhandedly, tilting his head towards her. "Until then, Miss Foster. Do not forget what it is that we have discussed," he saw fear flash in her eyes once again, saw her mouth open slightly to say something, but he didn't stay to see what it was, instead turning on his heel, exiting the room.

The moment he was outside of the room, a few steps away from it, he felt the world around him shift, until he was once again outside, where he had been before he had intruded in on Jane Foster. Loki closed his eyes momentarily, taking a deep breath, as he allowed his mind to absorb all that had just taken place, allowed his emotions to compose themselves as best they could - because they never felt completely composed, his mind a continuous realm of chaos.

He had won, and yet...he had also lost the battle with Jane Foster, had lost his temper with her, had allowed himself to say things that would probably never come to pass.

He had no qualms with ending Erik Selvig, and he had no qualms with overtaking the mortals, but...in his heart, which still existed, despite what some thought, he didn't think that he could tear Austin apart, and not feel anything. And Thor...

Loki didn't even want to think of how he would feel battling his brother - not _yet_. He couldn't bare it at the moment. And so, he cast the thought aside, and instead turned to the mystery of his feelings for the mortal girl - because, again, he could lie to others, but never to himself; he did _care_ about her, a little bit, though he wasn't quite sure why.

It was true that they were kindred spirits, and that she was different from the other mortals, but that wasn't the reason why he didn't want to destroy her so easily. There was something else, though he couldn't quite put his finger on it...

Loki sighed as his green eyes opened, gaze fixing on the door to the hospital, knowing that Austin was still waiting for him. And, in that moment, he pushed his confusion over her aside as well, and focused on his curiosity instead, still wanting to know why it was that she hated Jane, still wanting to pry the truth from her.

He would ask her, before they visited Jane Foster together - and, if he could, he would use the information to further his plans. And, if nothing else, he would further unravel the mystery that surrounded Austin.

* * *

><p>Austin was sitting on one of the uncomfortable seats situated in the waiting room when Lee appeared, and she looked up, seeing him from the corner of her eye, hoping to God that her eyes weren't puffy, and her cheeks weren't red. She had spent the last few minutes in the bathroom splashing water on her face, trying to calm her nerves, but it hadn't helped.<p>

She still felt like a wreck - still felt confused about her emotions, about what she should do.

She wanted to tell Lee the truth, wanted to confide in him, but _should_ she? She had no way of knowing how he would react, and she didn't want to offend him, or make him even more angry at Jane. That, and she had no idea if he were spying for her father or not, though she wanted more than anything to trust him.

It was a simple yet complicated thing, trust was, and Austin had had very few people in her life that she felt like she could trust, and that she had been able to keep her trust in. And, though she hadn't known him long, she did feel like she could trust Lee, like she could tell him anything, but...her head was getting in the way, causing her to have doubts.

But her doubts were shattered the moment that she looked up, and her eyes met Lee's green, green gaze. It seemed as if time stopped in that moment, as if some connection was made as he stared at her, something painful and tortured in his eyes, speaking to her, before it abruptly vanished, replaced by the normal mask of calm that he wore.

"I am sorry to have made you wait," Lee said as he sat down close to her, not exactly across from her, but not exactly next to her, either; he was close enough that she could have reached him with her hands if she stretched out her arms. To her surprise, he looked down at the floor when he spoke to her, losing some of his confident air. "I am afraid the conversation was...longer than I had expected it to be."

"Were you talking to my dad?" Austin blurted out a moment later, and then gasped, covering her mouth, angry with herself for asking.

Lee appeared surprised, however, when he looked up at her, his green eyes widening slightly. "No, not at all," he said, and then, after a moment of examining her face, the truth dawned on him: "You believe that I am spying on you for him," it sounded even stupider, even more horrible when he said it, a brief bout of anger crossing his features.

Austin opened her mouth to tell him no, that she hadn't suspected that, that he was mistaken, but then she sighed, looking away, knowing that she couldn't lie - her mother had always told her that lies created even more lies, and that telling the truth, painful or not, was the best way to forge any relationship, and to keep it on good terms.

"I'm sorry," Austin said a moment later as she bit her lip, feeling an odd gloom descend over her; she hoped Lee wouldn't hate her for this, though she understood why he was angry at her; he had every right to be. "It's just...my father has been acting...odd lately, like I told you before. I don't really know what to make of it, and since he doesn't seem too keen on talking to me, I thought that maybe he was worried about me, or afraid that I would come to you for information, and so he asked you to..." Austin trained off, feeling her face heat up as Lee reached out and grasped onto her chin, turning her head so that she was looking at him. He eyes were even greener now, solemn, though contemplating - _always_ contemplating - and, with the feeling of his touch, Austin found that she couldn't breathe; it wasn't the reaction she had been expecting, and she felt her heart race.

"I swear to you that I have not relayed any information to your father," Lee said seriously, and, as Austin stared into his green orbs, she found that she believed him; he appeared sincere, very focused, very intense. "nor will I relay any information to him. It would be a dishonor to you," the way he said it sounded formal, and yet...intimate, in a way. His touch left her then, and Austin felt somewhat lightheaded, immediately missing it; she decided to chide herself for this later, when she wasn't around Lee. "Now, what was it that you were going to tell me, about Miss Foster?" he asked finally, raising a thin, black eyebrow in question.

It was a moment before Austin could speak, feeling lost, drowning in Lee's gaze as she recalled memories, things from her childhood, things that she had kept hidden for years, some things that she often wished that she could forget. Normally, she kept them locked away, since she hadn't seen Jane in a while, but now, with her father near, and Jane back in the picture, and her crash, well -

"I love Jane, I really do. She's like a sister to me," Austin began, the words rolling off her tongue unbidden as Lee continued to watch her, his analysis of her less intense now, though it hadn't completely vanished; instead of her being a pet, or a random person, he seemed to actually care about what she was feeling and thinking, seemed to view her as a friend, at least; Austin couldn't let herself hope for more, or she would go insane with that hope. "but, she's always been..._different_ from me - intelligent, perfect, the kind of child my dad _wished_ he had," she tore her gaze from Lee then as tears pricked at her eyes, hating that he would see her cry another time, though she couldn't quite help it.

She continued to ramble on as Lee listened, though she didn't look back up at him, didn't want to see the expression on his face - be it pity, remorse, or the sense that she was pathetic. She relayed all of her reasons for hating Jane, and her heart ached with pain.

"My dad wanted a scientist, someone to carry on his legacy, and Jane's just like him. When I was young, he was hopeful that I would be his carbon copy, until he discovered that I wasn't like he was - I love science, and I'm curious, but literature has always been my passion, and I wanted to be a writer, and my dad hated that. He wouldn't come out and say it, but I could tell it from the way he acted. And when Jane's father passed away, and we started spending more time with her, it showed - I saw it, that he wished that I was more like _her_, that I was different. He spent plenty of time comparing the two of us, and, when he lost the hope that I would change, he started to spend more time around Jane than me, and I - well, I fell into the background. I tried to change, but it didn't seem right, and I hated being like the two of them, when that wasn't what I really wanted. I-I didn't understand why he couldn't just love me for me - and I still don't! Even to this day, I can never seem to be good enough for him!" Austin didn't realize that she was crying, tears streaking down her face, until Lee once again turned her gaze to him, this time, his hands resting on either side of her face.

And when their eyes met, Austin was surprised by what she saw -

_Disbelief_.

There was disbelief in Lee's eyes, as if he couldn't seem to fathom what she was saying, as if her words and what they meant couldn't possibly be true. And it confused Austin, her eyebrows furrowing, her mouth opening to ask him what it was that he was thinking, since she couldn't tell from his eyes, oddly, before Lee began speaking.

"I _understand_," he said, voice somewhat wispy, awe dawning in his green gaze. "I understand, and...so do _you_..." he trailed off for a moment, appearing confused, before a deep, heartbreaking sadness overtook his eyes, more intense than any sadness Austin had seen him yet display. "I understand what you are feeling, Austin, because I have felt the same - only with my brother, the one that Miss Foster...changed. He was always father's favorite, was always better than me," the intense sadness in his eyes vanished then, replaced by something else - _anger, _vehemence.

Austin saw the two emotions mix, forming a powerful, horrible cocktail, as Lee looked away from her, gaze fixed on something that wasn't there, as if he were picturing his father and brother. "He kept the truth from me, my father did, but I learned of it eventually - learned of my ugliness, of the monster that I am. It all made sense then, how my brother was always deemed worthy, and I was not, how I became the son that they felt that they had to endure, instead of love. I learned that that man, the one I had so loved, was not truly my father, and that my brother was esteemed above me for a reason. And then, they _betrayed_ me, just as I was near proving to them how worthy I was," Lee's green gaze grew even greener with his anger, and something inside of Austin stirred, became terrified.

Because it was horrible - his voice, his tone, the anger emanating from him. It was so thick, and he was so overrun with pain, that she could _feel_ it. This wasn't simple anger, and he wasn't a simple outcast.

This was rage, despair - _hatred_.

And it was terrifying.

_He_ was terrifying.

And yet...

"I'm sorry," the words came out unbidden, causing Lee to turn and look at Austin, his eyes wide as she spoke, more tears falling from her eyes. "I'm so sorry," she repeated, and, though she may have been imagining it, she could have swore that she saw Lee's eyes tear, too.

She knew what it was like to hunger for those words, and to never hear them. No one had told her sorry - no one had even acknowledged that she had been hurting, even if they had seen it. The most she had been given was an explanation of why things were the way that they were, never an _apology_.

But she deserved one, and so did Lee. It was obvious that he had been cast aside as well, mistreated - and no one deserved to be mistreated like that, especially by their family, who was supposed to love and accept them for who they were.

Something new and somewhat soft formed in Lee's eyes as a small, barely-there smile graced his lips. "Thank you, Austin," he said, and Austin felt her heart swell at the sight of that smile, as she saw some of the weight - even though it was only a small bit - begin to lift from him.

He had been carrying a secret, a pain, as had she, but now, they could handle it together, because they had finally both found someone to _understand_.

* * *

><p>"I'm just taking a break. They practically ordered me to leave for a bit."<p>

Jane watched as Erik smiled at Loki - in disguise as Lee - both of them standing in her hospital room along with Austin, who watched them carefully. Jane had been entertaining Austin and Loki for about ten minutes now, finding herself confused by the way that they reacted to one another, especially with Loki's earlier words in her mind, when Erik had suddenly stumbled into the room, looking tired, and a bit shaken.

"I see," Loki was the one who had gained the reply from Erik, having asked why he wasn't at work; Jane had a feeling that Loki was somehow connected to the tesseract, though the idea terrified her, knowing the power that the Cube held, what it must have been capable of. "I assume you will be returning shortly?" he question, to an outsider, would have sounded friendly, but to Jane - and Erik, who frowned, before quickly making himself smile, forcing - it was a command...or a veiled threat, depending on how you wanted to look at it.

Erik's smile stretched, and it was so well played that Jane nearly believed it was real; it seemed that he was getting better at lying, perhaps learning a few ugly tricks from the trickster himself. "Yeah. I'll spend a few minutes here, then its back to work for me," he said, and then looked from Loki to Austin, his smile shifting into something real when his gaze landed on his daughter, though his eyes were worried. "I'll see you back at home, then?" he asked, obviously trying to send Austin and her secretly evil companion on their way so that he could speak to Jane.

Austin's eyes shifted, and it seemed that she knew something was wrong, yet she didn't ask her father about it; Jane figured that Austin assumed that the wrong had to do with his work, unknowing of the danger that followed her nearly everywhere. "Yeah, I'll be there later," she said, and then she turned her gaze to Loki, who was already watching her, an odd look in his green eyes, and said: "I'm a bit hungry. Does lunch sound alright with you?"

To Jane's surprise, Loki nodded, a small, somewhat amused smile curling on his lips. "Of course," he said, and then he chuckled lightly, eyes narrowing in a way that was nearly...playful? The action made Jane's head reel with questions. "Though I certainly hope that the - what was it, diner? - is not the only eating establishment in this town. I do not think that I can bear another morsel of their terrible food," his remark gained a grin from Austin, who nodded in assent, fighting a laugh.

The whole exchange Jane found rather...odd, offputting, and when she glanced at Erik, she noticed that the same confused look was on his face as Loki stepped back, allowing Austin by, so that she could exit the room. She also noticed that as Austin passed, Loki reached out to touch her arm lightly, almost reassuringly, before he cast Erik a malicious grin, bidding both him and Jane a good afternoon before he turned towards the door as well.

It was a few moments after the door had closed, after Austin and her fiendish companion had left, that Jane had the strength to ask: "What the hell was that?"

Erik found her eyes, appearing even paler than before as he replied, sweating slightly, looking as though he may fall over at any minute. "I don't know, Jane. I don't understand it," he said, and then he wavered, nearly losing his balance, causing Jane to gasp.

Jane forgot about Loki for a moment - though it was hard to pry him from her mind, especially after their earlier conversation, and the fact that Austin had just left with the evil god - as she reached out towards Erik, though she couldn't even begin to touch him, confined as she was. "Sit down, Erik, before you fall," she said, and though he didn't look happy about it, he did as she told him, and sat in the seat next to her bed.

When he was sitting, his eyes finding the floor immediately, something in them despairing, Jane scrutinized his face, feeling worry and fear wriggle into her heart as she realized just how horrible he looked, and then remembered what Loki had said he might do to him - what he probably _would_ do to him, before everything was over.

Erik appeared as if he hadn't slept in a few days, bags that resembled hers lying beneath his eyes, his hair unwashed, standing somewhat on end. He was ghostly white, and he was breathing through his mouth, as if he was feeling suffocated, his clothes wrinkled more than they normally were.

He was a shadow of the man that she knew - and all because of Loki.

Tears came to Jane's eyes as she let what Loki had said - concerning Austin, concerning Erik - travel back into her thoughts, her heart aching with the memory. She now knew why Erik had acted the way he had, why he was going through with whatever plot Loki had put him up to - he was trying to protect her, trying to protect Austin.

The two of them - Jane and Erik - were void now, had sold their souls to the proverbial devil, but maybe they could still keep Austin alive.

Jane hadn't known exactly how terrifying Loki was until he had rounded on her earlier that day, until she had seen the utter hatred in his eyes, had heard the things he was capable of, the things that his mind concocted. It shocked her, how someone who was the brother of Thor could be so utterly cruel - because, sure, Thor had had his problems when he'd landed on Earth, but he was nothing like that.

Loki was a _monster _- an even worse monster than she had previously thought.

And the worst thing was that he was _okay_ with it.

"What are we going to do, Erik?" Jane said then, pushing Loki's threats to the back of her mind once again; he had told her not to speak to Austin or to S.H.I.E.L.D., but he had said nothing about Erik, and she wondered if he had wanted them to try and plan, wanted to toy with them as they looked for a way out, and yet weren't able to find it. "Loki, he's - he's going to _kill_ her, Erik. He's not just terrifying - he's _cruel_. She isn't safe. You have to get her out of here, before it's too late," she said, speaking frantically, trying to keep herself from imagining the horrible things that could happen to Austin, though part of her wondered if they would happen at all, if it were possible.

Loki had been acting strangely when they'd been in the room together, almost as if -

_No_. It couldn't be. He was just trying to toy with Austin's emotions. It was part of his game. He had already admitted to it, and it was more than clear that he was good at lying, but...

"What would you have me do, Jane?" Erik asked after a moment, pulling Jane from her thoughts as she looked up at him, and he in turn looked at her, utter dispair in his eyes. "I can't just send Austin away - he would become suspicious, and then he would find her, and it would be over. No, I have to get her to _want_ to leave. She has to do it on her own. It's the only way...and, even then, he might not leave her be, just to keep me running in circles," Erik lowered his head at that, swallowing thickly, and Jane felt her heart sink.

Because he was right. Austin would have to leave on her own - but, even then, she probably wouldn't be _safe_.

She was like a fly caught in a spiderweb, and Loki was one crafty spider.

"What about the Director?" Jane asked then, a sudden thought occurring to her. "Director Fury, have you told him about Loki? Couldn't S.H.I.E.L.D. do something?" she knew that it was unlikely, but the agency may have had the upper hand, if they were warned in time, if they could perhaps call someone in.

"I'm working on that," Erik said, his eyebrows furrowing as he looked down at the ground again, as if remembering something; his tone was offhand. "But, Jane, there's something else, something about the tesseract..." he trailed off for a moment, and Jane sighed.

She was a scientist, just like Erik was, but even she knew when to quit working, and start thinking of other things, though she didn't do it very often. This was lost on Erik, whose only mind was science; it was part of what had led to his divorce, and it was part of what kept him from having a better relationship with Austin.

"Nevermind the Cube, Erik," Jane said then, shaking her head, suddenly feeling overly tired, her head aching, her wounds hurting; she wished then that Thor would return, and take his brother in, though the idea terrified her in a way, because she wasn't sure which brother might win, if they were to fight; she wanted to bet on Thor, but she didn't know enough about Loki. "I'm more worried about Austin. Although..." she frowned as she again recalled the oddness between Loki and her friend. "There's something strange going on. Did you see how those two interacted when they were here? It was almost as if -"

"They were friends, or something," Erik said, nodding as he looked up at her, obviously obeying her wishes, and forgetting about his science experiment for the moment. "I know. I noticed it this morning, at breakfast, and its different even now. I don't know what to make of it. All I hope is that he's not going to make a grand spectacle of breaking her heart, though that doesn't sound like it would be beneath him..." Erik's eyes dimmed at that thought, though there was unspoken sadness lurking beneath, and Jane felt his sadness and worry reflected in her own heart.

Because she hoped for the same, though she had more reason to hope than Erik did, because she was more observant of Loki at the moment - he had threatened her, and he still terrified her, but she hadn't known him as long as Erik had, didn't have so many things clouding her judgement.

She knew what he had said, how he had told her that he would toy with Austin, if Jane didn't obey, but Jane had a feeling that he wouldn't be as eager to hurt her as he said he would be. In fact, Jane had a feeling that the mischief god might actually be coming to care for the mortal he seemed to be spending so much time with, even if he didn't know it yet; she had thought before, when her van had been about to crash, that Austin might be able to spark a change in Loki, and it seemed that she was right, that it was working...

And though that idea did nothing to ease Jane's worries for her world, and for the others that she cared about, she felt hope blossoming in her at the knowledge that Austin might still remain safe - especially if the care that Loki had displayed turned into love.

* * *

><p>Austin sat on her bed that night, staring down at her laptop screen, the day's events traveling through her mind at lightspeed.<p>

So much had happened, and in such a short amount of time, that it left her feeling dizzy. She was happy with some of the developments, such as the slowly forming bond that she shared with Lee, which had only grown that day, but some things also left her fearful, such as the way that her father had looked at the hospital, and at home, before he had fallen asleep on the couch, passing out almost upon entering the trailer, pale and overly tired.

Something was going on - something _new_ - though she had no idea what, and she hated being kept out of the loop. She planned to talk to her father about it the next morning, before she went shopping for the next night, for the dinner which she had invited Lee to, but for now...her father was asleep, and she was left feeling restless.

Austin smiled as her fingers stretched out over the keyboard of her computer, recalling that afternoon, when she had been about to drive away, back to the trailer, and had asked Lee to come over for dinner the next night - originally, she had been planning on it being just her dad and her, but she felt that having Lee there might make things a bit less awkward between them; she had promised him stir-fry, which he said that he had never had, since she was vegetarian; Lee had given her an odd look when she'd tried to explain the meal, frowning slightly. Just before he had left, he had asked her if he could read her writing sometime, since, during lunch, she had revealed to him that she had in fact started down the path that would lead to her dream, the occupation that her father loathed so much, and she had shyly agreed.

It was nice to have someone who actually seemed interested in what she loved, who was curious to read her work, and it made Austin all the more excited to write her next chapter.

And so, mythology book by her side, its open page displaying none other than Loki, her favorite god, and Lee's encouragement in her mind, Austin set her fingers to typing.

And she typed all through that night...until she was too tired to keep her eyes open, and she fell back on the bed, eyes drifting closed as sleep overcame her. She wasn't sure how much time passed, or if she were actually awake or not, but at one point, she could have sworn that she felt someone's presence in the room, and when she woke the next morning, there was a blanket lying atop her, having kept her warm through the night.

And as Austin stared down at it, she was again struck with the truth that there was something going on that she couldn't see, but as she stood, got dressed, and opened the door to her bedroom, seeing her father sitting at the small table in the "kitchen", she steeled herself to ask the truth...and only hoped that she was ready to hear it.

* * *

><p><strong>Hello, everyone, and sorry for the wait! I made sure to write a long chapter this time to (try) and make up for it. I have to admit that this was a hard chapter to write, but I'm pretty happy with the way that it turned out. <strong>

**My absence is due to a really crappy family situation I'm dealing with at the moment, otherwise this story would have been done sooner. I won't load you with details, but things are getting better, thankfully. Work has also picked up again for the summer, but don't worry, because I'm going to finish this story, and write the sequel! It may just take a little bit longer than expected...  
><strong>

**I've seen the Avengers three times, and it was awesome! If you haven't seen it yet, be sure to! I'm going to love putting Austin into the storyline, and I've decided on the title for the sequel to this story. It will be called "_The Mystery Of Mischief_", and I'll tell you what it's about when this story is on its final chapter.  
><strong>

**Thanks to all of the readers and reviewers - reviewers especially; feedback is so helpful to me! - for continuing to read and enjoy the story!  
><strong>

**Until next time,  
><strong>

**Cross~  
><strong>


	6. Chapter 6: Falling For Familiarity

_The Science of Mystery_

Chapter Six: Falling for Familiarity

Erik didn't want to admit that he held his breath when Austin entered his small, barely-able-to-be-called kitchen, his grip on his mug tightening, even though he tried not to let it, its handle nearly breaking. Austin wore a tentative smile as she walked from her room, shutting the door behind her, and into his view, wearing an ensemble of green and black, with just a hint of gold, a combo he had to admit that he didn't care for, her hair hanging loose for once, not pulled back into its normal ponytail.

Erik inwardly sighed when he saw that her hair was down; generally, in his experience, women wore their hair down when they were trying to impress somebody – mainly, for his daughter, a man (though, of course, one could say that Erik's experience was a bit limited, since most his time was, and had always been, spent in a lab).

Nervousness and terror boiled within him as he thought of the possibility that Austin may be wearing her hair down for just that reason, though he tried to ignore the horrifying possibility as he put on an overly fake smile, nodding at Austin as she passed him, on her way to the refrigerator, before taking a long swig of his coffee.

"Want some pancakes, dad? I picked up the mix at the store on my way home yesterday," Austin commented, her voice friendly, as forcefully cheery as his smile was, making Erik tense even further, nearly spilling his coffee on his shirt as he fought his anxiety. "You didn't have any groceries, so I just bought a few things. I'll have to go back to the store later to get things for tonight," he turned to watch her take the milk out of the refrigerator, a bowl out of one of the small cupboards in the kitchen, and the pancake mix from another, her gaze turning towards him as she shot him a raised eyebrow.

Erik nodded, not trusting himself to speak, and Austin nodded back, beginning to mix the pancakes.

Silence reigned in the kitchen for a few moments before finally, Erik couldn't take it.

"Austin—" he started, but was cut off when she turned back towards him, leaning against the counter after she dropped an amount of pancake mix into the frying pan situated on the stove she had already heated, watching it cook from the corner of her eye.

"Dad," Austin started, addressing him at the same time as he did her; she didn't wait for him to finish speaking, though, instead continuing with: "is there something...going on? You seem a bit, well, _worried_, or something, and I'm worried about _you_. You've been...antsy," when she spoke, her voice was soft, and her green eyes were wide, her concern reflecting in them; this caused Erik to feel like the worst father in the world, more than he already did, knowing that he was causing her worry, as well as putting her in terrible danger, and all in the name of recognition that he should have never placed above his family. "You can tell me about it, you know, if you want to," her voice dropped almost to a whisper on that last note, as she looked away, back at the pancakes, using a utensil to flip them.

Erik felt his heart crumple as he watched his daughter move, memories flooding into his mind.

He could picture her now as she was years ago, still a little girl, so full of hope and promise – before she had turned down the wrong path, gone in a direction that he had never wanted her to go. It had been before the divorce, before he'd given up on life, and had retreated to Science, safe and secure, since, for him, Science was easier than family, and than life in general.

Now, he wished more than anything that he could go back, and change his mind, and focus more on his family, and on Austin – especially since he may soon lose her, if Loki had his way.

Which, he inevitably would, as far as Erik could tell, which more than terrified him, though, in one way, he was downright tired of being afraid.

What could Loki do to him, after all, that he hadn't done already, aside from hurt Austin? Jane had already suffered, had already had her encounter with the rogue god, and Erik was further in than he would have liked. Sure, Loki could tortured him, but, at this point, it would have been kinder than what he _was_ doing, making Erik run in circles, and hate himself; he doubted that torture laid in his future, though, not of the physical kind, because that didn't sound like it would be in Loki's style (how terrible it was that manipulation had different styles).

No, that wasn't true, because Erik's worst fear was _Austin_, and what she thought of Loki, of "Lee", especially with the way that she'd been acting the previous day, and with the tesseract.

Erik suppressed a shiver as he remembered the Cube, and its voice, the way it had seemed eager to be brought to his daughter. He still didn't understand what had happened, though he was determined to find out, just as soon as he got to the lab.

But, for now...he was with Austin, spending time with his only daughter; he should enjoy it while it lasted.

"No, nothing's wrong, Austin. I'm just..." Erik thought of the best way to lie without lying as Austin turned her heavy gaze back to him, her eyes analyzing him – this reminded him of Loki, and he hated it, though his daughter had always had that trait. Erik sighed. "I'm just having a hard time at work. It's been difficult, with Jane in the hospital, and my...assistant not starting quite yet, and with what we're working on. It's amazing, but it feels so foreign to me," this, at least, wasn't a lie (save the part about his "assistant", Lee, who wasn't his assistant at all), because Erik was fascinated, and flabbergasted, by the tesseract, especially after its newest developments.

Austin's gaze remained on him, attempting to ascertain whether or not he were telling the truth, before she nodded, seeing his truthfulness; hopefully she couldn't tell that he was hiding something, as well. "I'm sorry it's been rough for you. I wish that I could help. I wish that you could tell me what it is that you're working on..." she hedged, and Erik sighed, knowing that he couldn't do that.

Not only was it against his contract with S.H.I.E.L.D. to divulge information like that, but telling Austin would put her in even more danger, and he was supposed to be making her want to _leave_, not making her want to stay; Austin was a curious girl, and if he told her about the tesseract, then she would be dying to see it, and would never leave.

That, and she was already suspicious of Loki (though she did seem to like him a lot), if what Erik had observed meant anything, and if he confirmed that the Cube, some crazy, alien thing, was real, then she may put weight to her theories about the mysterious "Lee".

No, he was supposed to be making her want to leave – and he had to get to it.

"Austin, why did you invite Lee to diner tonight? You know I don't like him. I thought I made that obvious enough," Erik said, pretending to be cross as he folded his arms and looked down, grimacing, setting his coffee cup on the table harshly; maybe making her angry would cause her to want to pack up, to never see his face again. That would be fine with him, if she was safe because of it, though losing her again – permanently, no doubt, this time – would cause a pain worse than any Loki could inflict to sear through his chest.

Not surprisingly, Austin did become angry when he threw the question her way, nearly allowing his pancake to burn as she plucked hers out of the frying pan, slapping it onto a nearby plate. "What do _you_ care that I invited him? You're the one who introduced us, and you haven't really told me _why_ you don't like him, anyway. You've just given me strange looks, and stupid hints," Austin snarled, as smoke began to rise from his blackening breakfast, crossing her arms over her chest as well, being just as stubborn as he was being. Then, shocking Erik, she leaned forward, her voice low, demanding, as she asked: "What's going on, dad? I want the _truth_."

She wanted the _truth_? Oh, that sounded familiar – Jane had said the same thing to him, and then he had told her the truth, and she had almost been killed because of it, and now, she was caught in the spider's web.

But, Austin was already caught; she just didn't know it.

For a fleeting moment, as he stared into his daughter's unshakeable eyes, Erik was tempted to tell her everything, to relay the whole, horrible story, the consequences be damned. For a moment, he felt relief flood him at the idea, before he reminded himself that it would most likely spell her death.

No, he couldn't tell her. He could bear the burden, but he wouldn't allow his daughter to do the same.

"Austin, I swear to you, nothing is wrong," Erik managed after a moment, his voice somehow remaining stable, though inside he was shaky. He watched Austin's expression carefully, and saw her eyes widen, before she straightened, and then sighed, an irritated look overcoming her face. He took the opportunity that was presenting itself, and asked her one of the questions burning on his mind: "What do you think of Lee?"

To his surprise, his daughter became a bit pink as she grimaced at him, and then turned to the stove, her back facing him, blocking him from her expression further as she mumbled: "I like him," her shoulders hunching a bit as she started on a new pancake.

It was perhaps the worst thing that she could have said, and it made Erik's heart break – not only because it worried him, but also because it saddened him.

He was a failure of a father, and he knew it; the only thing he seemed good for now was protecting Austin (somewhat) from the mess that he had landed her in due to his selfishness. He had divorced her mother, and had then moved away. He conversed with her over the phone, but they never really talked. And now, when she was finally near him, at his home, he spent barely any time with her; Erik would have liked to think that, had Loki not appeared in his life, he would have acted differently when Austin came to visit, but he knew that this was a lie.

He was married to his work, and he had failed her.

And now, she was undeniably attached to "Lee", the mischievous god in disguise, and she would once again be abandoned, in the end, let down by someone she cared for. It was a cruel reality.

Erik felt the sadness weigh heavily on his heart as he stared at Austin's back, watching her flip the pancakes, silent now, knowing that this time especially, there was nothing that he could do to change things.

* * *

><p>Loki hadn't planned on making it a habit of following the mortal girl around, but oddly, he found that once he appeared at the site of Erik Selvig's trailer, rendered invisible to everything around him, thanks to his magic, that he found himself doing just that – following Austin.<p>

He had originally intended to appear to Erik, perhaps shock him a bit, which always proved amusing, before he delivered another threat to him, telling him of the necessity of his gleaning information on the tesseract, and the new consequences (which he had been saving for a rainy day) that would befall Erik, should he take longer than another day, but when the door to the trailer slammed open, and an angry, fuming Austin stepped out, slinging her backpack over her shoulder, as her clumsy father stumbled his way to the door, nearly falling, Loki couldn't ignore his pique of interest.

And so, he decided to throw aside the scientist for the moment, and instead follow Austin, wanting to know what infuriated her so; he didn't ask himself why he wanted to know this, because, deep down, he knew the answer, though he didn't want to admit it; he told himself that he was following her for nothing more than amusement, and for the fact that her anger, perhaps, would give him another thing to hold over Erik's head, which would make the remainder of his time on Earth more entertaining.

That is what he was there for, at this time, after all – entertainment. He wished to learn more about the tesseract as well of course, but mostly, he was scoping out the world that would soon be his. He wasn't ready to make his move yet, and, more importantly, his "friends" weren't quite ready yet, either.

Loki didn't like to think of the Chitauri often, but when he did, he couldn't save himself from grimacing. They may have found him after he'd thrown himself into the void he had created, attempting to destroy the Jotuns, and they may have revealed secrets to him, wishing for his cooperation, but he still saw them as lowly, just as they saw him, the fools; they were a means to an end, nothing more – and what end, they didn't even know.

Loki hadn't revealed his real plan to anyone, and he didn't plan on it. Earth was just a stepping stone, as far as he was concerned, though he fully intended on ruling it.

He fully intended on ruling everything—

He would beat Thor, at last.

A terrible scowl overcame him as he thought of Thor, his brother – no, not his brother! Of _Thor_, nothing more; of the man who had spited him, who appeared to live to spite him. Loki knew that Austin hated Jane, but he had a feeling that his hate for his brother was much deeper, because it had had more time to fester. Loki had lived for a long time, though sometimes, it felt as though he had hardly lived at all.

But, Loki did appreciate Austin's understanding. He had spent all night thinking of it, marveling at the truth that someone – and a mortal, no less – understood what he felt, to some extent. The variables may have been different, and Austin may have been mortal, seemingly pathetic, but she was also the same, and she understood.

And, somehow, though she was mortal, and therefore beneath him, she also..._wasn't_.

The idea, the very thought, was confusing, disconcerting, and yet strangely freeing. Loki couldn't seem to wrap his mind around it, which in part made him angry, because there was little that he couldn't wrap his mind around. He had spent so many years planning, and scheming, and creating mischief that he hardly knew the meaning of the phrase "unable to understand".

And yet, he suffered from it, that phrase. He didn't understand.

And perhaps that's why he followed Austin, even if she didn't know it.

Or, maybe, it was the look in her eyes, or the tears streaking down her face as she all but stomped over to the vehicle that she drove (not Loki's favorite, but not completely terrible), the thing she called a Jeep. Erik had reached the door by then, and was attempting to stumble his way down the stairs, the pathetic, clumsy man, as Austin hit the button on her keys, unlocking the vehicle.

"Austin, don't be like this. I'm only looking out for you, you know?" Erik said, earning a glare from Austin as she turned towards him, ugly daggers in her eyes. Loki took that moment to step forwards, closer to the feuding father and daughter, continuing to remain unseen. Erik sighed as he stopped a few steps away from Austin, running a hand over his forehead; Loki noticed that his expression appeared fake – his worry was real, but what he would say next was a lie, or a conversation constructed for a purpose, and he had a feeling that that purpose was simple: to get Austin to leave.

Loki didn't know why Erik hadn't thought of this sooner, or, if he had, why he hadn't already made plans to force his daughter to leave. It was obvious to him, and had been from the start, that Austin was meant to stay more than a few days with her father, and that Erik wanted her to leave, to get her out of harms way – the sentimentality! Perhaps Erik was more terrified of him than he'd previously thought, and worried more for his daughter's safety, should he force her away, thinking that Loki may take an even more keen interest in her, if Erik fought that hard to preserve her life.

Yes, that sounded like a scientist. Such feeble thoughts would run through his brain, such pathetic attempts at protection for his daughter. But, the good news was that Loki had him exactly where he wanted him, and sooner than he had planned.

The good doctor Selvig would be like putty in his hands now, more afraid of himself than he was of Loki, really – more afraid of making a mistake, of saying the wrong thing, of inadvertently placing his daughter in more harm. And that would be his downfall, and would make Loki's job oh so much easier, and more entertaining.

Perhaps he would steal Austin away, and make Erik's nightmares become real, just to see what he would do – not that he would hurt Austin in any way; he really couldn't bear the thought, was disgusted by it.

Loki only hoped that Jane kept her end of their bargain, or he may be forced to keep his, and harm Austin...though that wasn't anything that a little bit of magic couldn't cure, or fabricate.

"Austin, maybe you should take a break. This is a stressful time for me, too. Go back home, see your mother, figure out what it is that you want to do with your life, then come back. A few months is all you need," Erik continued to speak, and even Loki turned to glare at the ridiculousness of his words, at his pathetic attempt at driving Austin away.

Didn't he know his daughter at all? Austin was much too intelligent to fooled by such a menial set of words, all laced with one thing: Erik's desperation to have her gone, and the fact that he was hiding something from his kin.

Loki felt himself bristle at the man, and in answer, the air around him bristled, too, sending a shiver of coldness through it. He watched as both Erik and Austin shivered, and as Erik looked around, as though knowing that they weren't alone, causing Loki to chastise himself.

What did he care if the young, mortal girl's father berated her, and treated her as if she were no more intelligent than a child? It was none of his business, really. He should have been laughing at the angry look on Austin's face, not finding himself becoming angry, as well.

Loki willed his anger away, placing it into the pocket inside of him, where he kept all of his other unwanted emotions, someplace that he knew would burst one day, focusing instead on the laugh, harsh and low, that escaped from Austin's lips; in another dimension, and in another place, she may have been the perfect match for Loki, because that laugh reminded him a lot of himself.

But, no.

She was a mortal, and he hated mortals.

He couldn't forget that.

Though his mind – or was it his heart, abused and forsaken? – seemed unwilling to let him remember that.

"Oh, of course, I know what _you_ want – you want me to just disappear, so that you don't have to deal with me, and so that you can act like I'm not me, and pretend that I'm more like Jane, and hope that maybe, when I come back, I _will_ be!" Austin's green eyes were dark as she all but yelled at her father, opening the driver's side door to her Jeep in the process. "Well, I've got news for you, dad. You can wish all you want, but I'm not going anywhere, not until I get to the bottom of this," her voice dropped even lower on that note, and became more of a hiss than a shout, as she turned, and climbed into the vehicle, slamming the door shut behind her.

Loki had a feeling that something tentative had just broken, and he was painfully reminded of the moments before his exile, as he liked to think of it, from Asgard.

Thor. He had been yelling at Thor, taunting him, laying all of his cards onto the table, no lies involved for once. In that moment, nothing had mattered, save trying to get his brother – no, Thor! – to fight him; nothing had mattered but trying to prove that he was worthy, that he was needed, that he could be everything that Thor was, and perhaps more, since being Loki was never enough; it had never been enough.

"_Fight me, brother!" _

Loki remembered it all with clarity, and the memory caused a painful echo to surge through him, as if he were being stripped of everything that he was, everything that he had become. He could never go back to that place, never change things, and, even if he had wanted to, he could never reclaim the family that he had lost.

And, Loki did want to reclaim that, if he was honest with himself. He wanted to reverse time, to never learn of his true origins, to find another way to prove himself, without losing all that he had been, the prince of Asgard who no longer existed. But, it would never happen, and, even if he could reverse time, and never learn the truth of his ugliness, it would never vanish completely, his ugliness. Looking back, it had only been a matter of time before the truth was revealed, and even living in Thor's shadow, he had never been truly happy – happier than he was now, perhaps, but never all that he had wanted to be, growing up, imagining the future.

But, things couldn't be changed, not now, so he only had one direction in which to travel: forward.

Forward: to his rule, to his esteem, to the deaths of those he hated. This was his future now, his choice; there was no family.

There was no Odin, no father; and no Thor, no brother.

Only _enemies_.

Loki only possessed enemies.

But, if that were true, then what was Austin? The mortal girl wasn't someone whom Loki considered an enemy, and, if he really wanted to be honest, she wasn't someone whom he saw as a pawn, either, not anymore. She understood him, and that meant something. She had known the same pain that he had, and that, perhaps, meant something even more. She was _different_.

But, what did that make her to him?

"Austin. _Austin_!" the sound of her name, leaving the lips of her father as he started after her Jeep as it pulled away, was almost an echo as Loki blinked, returning to the scene, having not realized that his thoughts had overtaken him; thankfully, he was still invisible. "Austin!" Loki watched as the Jeep began to vanish, and Erik abruptly stopped running, not having gone that far.

The scientist's shoulders appeared to slump, as weight was pressed onto them from something unseen. He had never looked more pathetic than he did in that moment, and that pathetic slump, along with what else he had just seen, and what else he knew, made Loki hate him all the more. He was a pawn, but he was a hated one – one that the mischief god would enjoy destroying, when the time came.

But, not yet. The time wasn't quite neigh, which gave Loki a period to do as he wished, not that he never did; Loki did what he wanted, always.

Loki sent one last glance Erik's way, scowling, before he abruptly vanished...and then reappeared on the inside of Austin's Jeep, snuggled neatly into the passenger's side seat, finding a loud, somewhat odd song assaulting his ears the moment that he arrived.

The song was...not his type, but Austin was singing along with it angrily, brushing tears from her eyes, and he found that she didn't have a bad singing voice, though he would have much preferred her to be quiet – or, better yet, to speak of what was bothering her, of what her father had said, though she would, of course, be talking to herself; Loki was still invisible.

But, she was singing, and so Loki leaned back, and waded through the song, tuning the words out as he decided that he would spent the rest of the day attempting to piece together the puzzle that was the mortal girl. He had attempted to put the pieces together the previous day, when she had told him of her hatred for Jane, but pieces were still missing, mainly on his side.

What was Austin to him?

He spent much too much time with her, or thinking about her, or helping her, for her to be nothing, and his lies about her being nothing were quickly being proved false in his mind. So, what _was_ she?

Loki wasn't sure, and as he kept his eyes on her the rest of the day, he still didn't discover the answer, though he did discover more about Austin.

He followed her to the market, where he watched her avoid other people, and offer those she did run into wide smiles, assuming that she hated crowds, but also hated to be rude; also, he noticed her penchant for the substance called chocolate, of which she only placed (the four bars of) in her purchasing basket after she took three looks around, to see that no one was watching, her eyes amusingly wide. He followed her back to her father's trailer, and watched her scowl at the various furnishings, if they could be called that, within it as she attempted to make the area brighter, and more friendly – not to mention clean, since her father had apparently slept on the sofa, drunk a few of the disgusting beverages called beer, and left books lying on the table, meaningless papers scattered around them. He also followed her back into town, where she stopped at a small, homey bookstore, her eyes widening even further than they had at the market when she laid eyes on all of the books, an endearing smile on her face.

Books were obviously what she loved most, because the moment she laid eyes upon them, and began walking about the store, it was as if she were in the grandeur of Valhalla. Her amazement reminded Loki fiercely of the many hours he had spent in his own library back home – in Asgard – the only place where he could ever be sure that Thor wouldn't tread, or bother him. He had always loved books, even mortal books, but he had never found anyone who shared a passion for them as much as he did; books were written, in his world, for facts, and other menial things, not for the love of them.

But Earth was different, and Austin was different. She looked at each new book with the same amazement as she looked at the last, plucking one from the shelf to read the back cover, debating visibly for a moment, before keeping it, or placing it back, reverently, upon the shelf. Loki watched her expressions for a moment, before he decided to read over her shoulder, curious about what type of stories that she enjoyed; these were obviously fictitious books, judging by their covers.

The second time that Loki read the back of a cover over her shoulder (a tale about other worlds and aliens, amusingly), Austin stopped, and turned her head, her gaze questioning, almost as if she knew he was there. Thankfully, she only turned her head somewhat, though she was still so close that only a few inches remained between them. Loki fought to keep hold of his breath, but found it rather hard, having her green gaze so close, and seeing the variations in her eyes; they were green, but not like his, and in their depths there was hidden a few streaks of blue. For a mere moment, he felt the incomprehensible urge to close the space left between them, but then Austin turned her head back towards the book, and took a step forward to place it upon the shelf, freeing him from whatever spell under which he had been placed.

Loki stepped back a few steps, somewhat clumsy for once in his life, finding the handrail that lingered near him, the bookshelves they were looking at being on a raised platform in the store. His hand gripped the railing, nearly shattering it, as he stared at Austin's back, watched her pluck another book from the shelf – a normal motion, and yet one that caused his grip on the rail to tighten, small cracks running through it amazingly inaudibly, a million and one thoughts, all centered around Austin, racing through his mind.

What was_ wrong_ with him? His blood was pounding through his veins, his heart beating quickly – so quickly that he was surprised Austin hadn't heard it; his magic truly was amazing. And, he had a feeling that if he didn't find something to draw his mind from what had just nearly happened, then he may very well find himself doing something that he would no doubt later regret.

But, what should he do? He could disappear, shuttle himself to someplace else, before he had to show up at the abode of Erik Selvig that night for dinner, but how would that help? He didn't particularly wish to be away from Austin, just to banish the sense of desire that had crept upon him.

Because that's what it was, desire. But, for a mortal? He was growing soft, just as Thor had. Earth was a curse for him.

Though, this particular curse he didn't appear to mind.

Where had his sense _gone_?

Loki closed his eyes, cutting the image of Austin off, and attempting to reconcile his mind before he opened his eyes again, and made himself visible, hoping that speaking with Austin would allow him some small form of comfort, and wish the odd feeling away. Really, he should have left – or, better yet, should have struck her down then and there, before he could become any more attached to her – but this time he gave into his weakness.

"Austin," when he said her name, she jumped, dropping the books that she held, before she spun around, greeting him with a large, if not embarrassed, smile.

Loki smiled in turn, though the weight of her eyes didn't do anything to ease his odd feelings of...was this affection?

No, it couldn't be.

That wasn't allowed.

* * *

><p>Austin tried to still the pounding of her heart as she stared into Lee's green eyes, but the muscle refused to slow down, even when she told it to be quiet. He had appeared quite suddenly, as seemed to be his habit, but at the same time...she had been wishing that he were there, silently, and then he had appeared, as if by magic.<p>

Her day so far had been strange, unearthly...somewhat disturbing. Everywhere she had gone that day, she'd had the feeling of being followed, though it hadn't scared her, more made her wary. Invisible eyes had felt as though they were watching her, and then, just now, she'd felt as if someone were looking over her shoulder, could have sworn that she'd felt their hot breath upon her neck, but when she'd looked...no one was there.

Maybe she was being paranoid, but Austin didn't think so, especially since Lee had just appeared, unexpected and uninvited. She hadn't thought that she would see him until later on that night, but here he was, and though she was happy, she was also unsettled, and that bothered her.

Her mysterious, invisible stalker aside, Austin couldn't shake her father's words from that morning from her mind. It was more than clear that he didn't like Lee, though he refused to tell her why, and it was becoming ever clearer that something odd was happening behind her back – something was _wrong_, not just odd. There was a disturbance in the force, so to speak, something sneaky and silent lurking, and it all had to do with her father...and with Lee.

But, what was this mysterious thing, and how could she hope to get to the bottom of it? Her father refused to speak, Jane didn't appear to know, and Lee seemed oblivious to it (or was causing it), so what other resource did she have? The only other way for her to gain insight would have been for her to take a trip to her father's lab, but—

That was it!

She would have to visit his lab.

Whatever it was that he was working on, it was obviously connected to everything strange that was happening, and if she confronted her father there, there was no way that he would be able to hide the evidence of it.

Austin was tired of playing games now; she wanted the _truth._

Even if it was ugly.

She hadn't been prepared for the truth that morning, though she'd hoped to be, when she'd stumbled out of her room, and had begun making pancakes, but once she had seen the look of utter desperation, of worry – and even terror – on her father's face, she'd felt her fear solidify into resolve. Whatever was happening, it was having a grand wear on her father, and though he infuriated her at times, he was still her dad, and she still loved him, and she was tired of seeing him this way.

She didn't want to see him hurt, and it was obvious that he was hurting. No matter what his opposition, she had to discover his secret, for his own good.

But for now she was with Lee, and whatever else aside – her wariness of him, her anger at her father, her desire to discover the truth – she felt herself relax when she saw his face. She felt comfortable, at peace, around him, especially when the rest of her life was such a tangled mess of chaos; maybe it was stupid of her, but if her world was about to be turned upside-down, once she discovered whatever truth that her father was hiding, she at least wanted to enjoy her ignorance while it lasted.

"What are you doing here?" Austin found herself asking as she placed the book still in her hands on the shelf beside her; not its real place, but whatever.

For once, Lee appeared to be lost for words, before he finally spoke, breaking his gaze from hers, to let it roam over the spines of the books. Was it just her, or did he appear...nervous? No, not nervous – _anxious_. "I was wandering the town, and saw you enter this shop. I felt the need to say hello," he told her, before his gaze returned to hers, heavy with something she couldn't describe.

The heaviness made her swallow thickly, suddenly feeling nervous, as well. "Oh," she said, and then: "Well, I was just about to leave and get some coffee before I go see my dad. Do you want to join me?"

Lee visibly debated for a moment, as if trying to decide whether or not following her would be dangerous, odd as that seemed, before he nodded. "Certainly," he told her with a smile that for once wasn't convincing.

_Great, everybody seems to be off today. _Austin thought as she proceeded to the counter, purchased the books she'd picked out (after gathering them from the floor where she'd dropped them), and then headed out the door, Lee hot on her heels.

They picked an establishment other than the diner that Lee had a serious loathing of, a coffee shop that had apparently been opened recently, when her father's employer had moved to the town; apparently, his co-workers downed a lot of the caffeinated drink; sadly, they hadn't noticed the coffee shop the first day they'd gone out to lunch. The coffee house was relatively un-crowded, with only a few other couples and friends in it, and Austin felt relieved. Now, she only hoped that they had a drink to suit Lee's tastes – maybe she should tell him to try tea.

Once Austin had ordered her coffee, and Lee his tea (he'd decided to give it a try), the two sat down at one of the tables near the window, both taking time to look anywhere but at each other. Austin wasn't quite sure where the veil of awkwardness had come from, but it allowed her time to straighten out her thoughts, and she sighed, thinking again of her father.

How was she ever going to get through to him?

After a moment of silence, Lee spoke. "What troubles you, Austin?" he asked, surprising her, and when she looked up, he appeared to be back to normal, his green eyes calculating, though soft, for her comfort; it was crazy just how much those eyes, and the way that they regarded her, had changed.

Austin felt her eyes widen, perplexed, and instead of replying right away, she took a sip of her coffee, not trusting herself to answer. Though she sincerely liked Lee, and she felt comfortable around him, the objections her father had planted in her head aside, sometimes she also felt unnerved under his gaze, though not in a particularly bad way. He seemed to take too much interest in everything that she did – how she spoke, how she moved, where she was in the room, how others reacted to her – and though it was flattering, no one had ever acted that way around her before. But, she supposed that maybe it was normal...ish; Tony acted that way around Pepper, in his Tony way, but—

Wait, was there a possibility that Lee liked her, too?

Austin fought the urge to shake her head at that, knowing that getting mixed up in any sort of relationship would definitely not be to her benefit right now, not with everything lurking in her mind, uncertain.

Though she couldn't deny that the prospect was...exciting. She had never felt about anyone quite the way that she felt about Lee, had never had such a connection with anyone before. It was equally thrilling and scary.

She couldn't decide which emotion was more prevalent, though.

Maybe because she was too afraid to think too much on it, because thinking meant that, if she was wrong, and Lee didn't really like her, she would get her heart broken...if she didn't already.

One man had already broken her heart, and she didn't need another to.

Austin took in a deep breath, and then let it out, sighing heavily, before she spoke. "It's just my father," she told him, trying to wave the subject away, not really wanting to talk about it, since there was little she could do about it at the moment; that, and she wasn't sure if Lee was aware of her father's dislike of him or not, though, based on how astute he was, he probably was aware. "He's just...busy, and he wasn't supposed to be while I was here. I was hoping that he would have more time for me. That...and we're not exactly seeing eye to eye," she looked away from Lee's green gaze then, her thoughts traveling back to that morning, and their growling conversation over breakfast.

Her father had again tried to convince her to go to college, saying that it wasn't too late, that she could actually make something of herself, instead of wasting her time with unrealistic dreams. Austin had had the mind to tell him that they weren't unrealistic, that she was actually writing something, but she hadn't managed it before tears had begun to prick at her eyes.

She didn't need her father's approval – she really _didn't_ – but that didn't mean that she didn't want it.

"Oh, but I did manage to write more last night," Austin blinked from her thoughts, turning to Lee with a smile that was somewhat fake as she thought of the words that had leapt onto the pages the night previous, before her eyelids had become too heavy to lift. "I like the story, but...I kind of get the feeling that it's missing something..." she trailed off then as she frowned, thinking of the direction that her plot was headed.

One of Lee's fine eyebrows perked in question. "What do you believe that it is missing?" he asked, actually appearing interested; Austin wondered then if Lee would make a good writer, if pushed in that direction. "What does your plot entail, exactly?"

Austin felt her cheeks redden slightly as she took another hasty sip of her coffee, a bit embarrassed to be explaining her plot – not to mention the fact that meeting Lee had been what brought the plot along, since he reminded her of...

Loki.

Thoughts – doubts, questions – floated through Austin's mind as she blinked, watching Lee carefully, measuring all of the odd things that had happened since he'd arrived. In a way, her story reflected her real life, the things that had happened to her recently, because it was about Loki.

About Lee.

_But Lee isn't Loki, Austin. That's insane. _Austin chided herself for the millionth time as she put her coffee cup down.

No, Lee wasn't Loki, because it was impossible. But, that didn't mean that he couldn't be Loki in her story.

"You really want to know?" Austin asked, surprised once again; she knew that Lee had said he'd read her work, but she had thought that he was just being nice, like Tony, who probably wouldn't read any fiction unless it was explicit, or Pepper threw it at him with the threat of...well, it was best not to think on that.

Despite her life long dream of becoming a published author, and despite the fact that she knew, without a doubt, that she was a good writer, Austin had to admit that she wasn't very confident in her world – not until recently, anyway. All of her teachers in school had praised her, and she always enjoyed what she did write, but the fact was that she was too hard on herself, and that was never going to change until she made the conscious decision to tell herself that she was, indeed, good at her craft – and _believe_ it.

Praise, or even acceptance, from her father wouldn't do it, Lee's interest wouldn't do it, it was all up to Austin; she liked having Lee's interest, though.

Lee's mouth quirked into a small, mischievous smile that made her think of Loki all over again. "Despite the fact that I am a...scientist, Austin, I do enjoy a good novel – often more than I enjoy science," when Lee spoke of science, there was an annoyance in his eyes that Austin couldn't ignore; she didn't really think of him as a scientist, despite the fact that he had been brought to work with her father. "I prefer creativity," he said, and Austin felt herself smile, as well.

"I think science is creative, too," she told him, shrugging, "but you're right that it's often seen as boring, or uncreative. I think that maybe people look at it wrong. It _should_ be fun, as well as creative," she shook her head then, laughing. "But, I won't ramble about that, because then we'll be here all night. When it comes to my book, though..." she paused, gathering her courage; she had shared most everything else with Lee, so why not this, too. Sometimes, strangers – or people who used to be strangers – were the best company, the best people to bounce your ideas off of. "Well, you do remember when I told you that my father had all of those mythology books lying around, all marked in the same place? I got to thinking about it, and the strange things that have happened to me this week," she wasn't about to mention the fact that they had all, almost, happened around him, "and constructed a story around them. Basically, I put a Science-Fiction twist on the mythology, so Loki, the god my dad's been practically obsessed with, isn't really a god, but an alien, and Asgard's instead another planet. I figured with all of the chaos he causes, they would probably be happy to banish him to Earth," she finished on that note, gasping in a deep breath, the words having tumbled from her mouth in a rush.

Strangely, Lee looked almost...angry at her words, or was spiteful a better term? His mouth dipped down into an ugly grimace, and his eyes narrowed as he looked away, at something unseen. Austin felt goosebumps rise along her skin as the air around them appeared to drop in temperature.

His eyes looked somewhat black then. "Of course they would cast him out," he said, vehemence in his voice, as if he were speaking about himself.

This reaction surprised Austin, but she kept speaking, anyway, rushing with: "I know, and I think that's terrible. He always seems to get blamed for everything, you know? I wondered what would happen if he were disguise himself, and interact with the humans instead, how he would be accepted...and maybe if he'd be more accepted than he was in Asgard..." Lee's eyes returned to her then, lightening a bit, as she sighed, leaning back, a frown alighting on her face. "But, I think that I'm not treating his character right. I keep getting the feeling that, if he were suddenly so far from home, he might be...lonely, without anyone to understand, or know who he really is."

_Like me_, she wanted to add, though she didn't; she wasn't an alien, or a cast out god, but she would be a fool to try and trick herself into believing that she wasn't lonely, and that she felt like next to no one understood her very well.

But, Lee appeared to understand. He stared at her for a moment, thoughtful, before his hand found hers, placed atop the table, closing over it with a calm, regal assurance. "I would imagine so, but perhaps what your...character needs is someone like you, someone to share a connection with," Austin felt as though she couldn't breathe then, his words hanging in the air, tangible, her eyes unable to leave his face, his hand still encompassing hers, before abruptly, the moment was broken. Lee withdrew his hand, and sat back, once again looking away, his eyes darkening. "Perhaps Loki only needs someone to see what he is, instead of what he is not, to accept that he is different, and that he cannot ever, no matter how hard he tries, be his brother."

Austin's eyebrows furrowed as she listened, confusion overcoming her. She was about to tell Lee that she didn't think that Loki had a brother in Norse mythology, suddenly unsure herself, but the look on his face kept her from saying anything.

She got the feeling that he wasn't talking about Loki anymore, anyway, his expression so intense, so full of real emotion – emotion that couldn't come from speaking of a fictional character.

Austin opened her mouth to say something, to ask Lee if he wished to talk about whatever was plaguing him, when suddenly, she heard a noise.

Austin jumped as her phone rang, playing the Doctor Who theme, making a loud signal from her purse that she was being called. She sighed, excusing herself, though she really could care less about her phone right then, and checked to see who was calling, catching the word "DAD" before the call abruptly ended, going to voicemail.

Why was her father calling her? Was he trying to apologize for earlier, or was he trying to convince her, again, to not invite Lee over, and to leave the town, go back home?

Austin wasn't sure which, but she did know that she needed to visit his lab, in order to get to the bottom of things. But, she didn't want to leave Lee, not right now – his immediate pain was more important than her father's close-minded, pathetic attempts at pushing her away. She was done with those.

She loved her father, but she was realizing that it was time to grow up. She had other people who relied on her, and she needed to be able to be strong for them.

Austin tucked her phone away, fully intending on confronting Lee, on asking him what was bothering him so much – more about his brother, no doubt – but when she looked up, he was already standing, tall and imposing, and...cold.

The coldness he'd exuded the first time they'd met, calm and calculating, had returned, causing sadness with well within Austin. Whatever she'd said, it was obvious that she'd hurt him in some way, brought back some ugly memory, completely unintentional. Whatever it was, she hadn't meant to cause it, and she didn't necessarily blame herself, but still, she was sorry for causing it.

"Thank you, Austin. I am most definitely interested in your novel," Lee told her with that same, calculated air, though when he looked down at her, his gaze softened just a bit. "I am afraid I have some...business to attend to. I shall see you later," he offered her a small, mechanical smile, before she nodded woodenly, and he strode past, walking towards the front of the café, to the door.

Austin sighed, and then turned to watch him walk down the street through the window, but much like Loki, Lee had already vanished.

* * *

><p>Loki strode forward with purpose, feeling as if there were a weight on his shoulder, pressing down, making it hard to breathe, suffocating not only his lungs with its weight, but his heart, as well. His destination appeared far as he walked briskly, but he couldn't bring himself to care, because the walking allowed his thoughts time to brew; for once, he wasn't using his normal methods of travel, sticking to the shadows to drift from place to place, but was acting as a normal human.<p>

The mortals he passed all gave him glances as he went along, some appearing fearful at his expression, and Loki smirked, despite his whirling thoughts.

_Normal_? Hardly. He was far from normal, and even the most idiotic of humans could sense it, using their meager abilities.

But, while he wasn't normal, he was plagued, as the mortals often were, thoughts that he wasn't entirely comfortable with circling through his mind as he glided along, graceful and competent even in his rush and anger. The thoughts were like serpents, biting at him, hissing, and refusing to relent.

He didn't understand – his thoughts, their origin, or Austin - and that was perhaps the worst thing, because Loki was nothing if not prideful in his ability to methodically pull pieces of the puzzles that were people and feelings apart, though he rarely took part in the feelings himself, always tucked them away into that little box inside of him, where he hid what he couldn't look at, and kept what he didn't have the heart to throw away. His lack of understanding was only overwhelmed by the odd, sensational feeling that he had garnered at the bookstore, following Austin, which no amount of pushing aside could seem to banish, and which appeared to be growing at a steady rate, transforming into something entirely different.

Desire really was an ugly emotion, despite how it made one feel. And it wasn't like Loki was a stranger to the emotion, because he had desired many things – mainly the love of his once family, and to be held in as high of a regard as Thor was – but never quite something like this, or in this way, because this desire was quickly becoming an unnamed, unfelt emotion. It was disconcerting, and was making it hard for him to think, or to reason, or...to do much of anything.

He needed something to get his mind off of what was so torturously plaguing him, so that he could find his center again, further his plans; the time was fast approaching for action, on many levels, because he was tired of waiting.

He needed some way to understand.

Not only did Loki not quite understand the emotion that had grabbed at his heart, and stubbornly refused to let go, the emotion that had caused him to become cold towards Austin, because he was, truthfully, afraid of it, but he also didn't understand how Austin had uncovered the truth. She couldn't see it yet, but she knew who he was, somehow – had someone told her, or did she really understand him that well, to deduce it on her own? Was she really that capable and amazing, a mere mortal girl?

Yes, Loki needed some way to understand, to right the world that was quickly beginning to fall around him.

Loki abruptly stopped walking then, thoughts scattering a bit as he realized that he had reached his destination, a long, lingering smile stretching across his lips as his green gaze traveled upwards, meeting the long windows of the local hospital, their glass reflecting the sunshine above.

Yes, he needed some way to understand – and, in order for that to occur, he needed to speak (interrogate) someone who understood Austin, and her thought processes.

It seemed that it was time to pay the most loathed Jane Foster another visit; the details of their contract needed some...reworking.

Loki's wide smile stretched into a very Loki-like grin, one of the things that he was well known for, both in Asgard, and in Midgard, as his gaze landed on the window that he knew behind which lingered Jane, having no inkling of what was to come, and of how much she might suffer for it.

Loki was a patient man...but patience could only stretch so long, when it came to something that was loathed, and answers were to be had.

He wouldn't fall, like Thor. He wouldn't become soft; he refused.

He was Loki, and he now knew with a certainty that that was all he would ever be.

Never Thor; always Loki.

Never kind; always tricking.

Never loved...

Always Loki.

* * *

><p><strong>Hello, readers! Sorry it has been so long since I've updated. But, fear not, this story is NOT on hiatus! <strong>

**I love writing fanfiction, but I also write "real" fiction, too, as my day job, so fanfiction ends up being more of a side note, or therapy (fun), for me. That's why I don't get to my fanfics as often as I'd like (for writing or editing), though I will continue to keep writing them. If you'd like to purchase/read any of my published stories (I'd love your support!), please visit my website, which you can link to from my profile.  
><strong>

**I am going to try my hardest to finish this fanfic up before the end of the year. There was originally only going to be this chapter, and then one more, but I'm adding an extra, because I've decided to include a bit more of the plot in this one. Then, we'll be trumping along to the sequel. Please follow this story, and check your inbox for updates. :)  
><strong>

**On that note: I won't be updating at all until December at the earliest. I always participate in NaNoWriMo in November, so that month is shot, as far as writing more onto this fanfic.  
><strong>

**I hope you've enjoyed the chapter! I made it extra-long, because of the wait. Happy Thanksgiving early to those who celebrate, and Merry Christmas early, if I'm not able to post another chapter before then!  
><strong>

**Thank you all for your support and lovely comments! If you feel so inclined, I'd love to hear your thoughts.  
><strong>

**~Cross**


	7. Chapter 7: Confronted With Change

_**:The Science of Mystery:**_

_**Chapter Seven: Confronted with Change**_

Jane Foster was lying in her hospital bed, feeling a bit better that day, though she was quickly getting tired of being in a place where she could neither work, nor be of any use to Erik or Austen. She was casually reading a book Austen had brought her the day previous, when all of a sudden the air around her rippled and appeared to shift, her skin gaining gooseflesh as she looked up, already knowing who the culprit would be.

Loki stood at the foot of her bed, his eyes hooded, and to her absolute shock he looked terrible, like he had been up all night, or was suffering in an awful hell. Jane slowly sat her book down on her lap, not even bothering to mark her place, her eyes never leaving Loki as he began to walk briskly to her side, his footsteps loud in his haste. Jane didn't bother wondering if anyone could see or hear them, because by now she knew better.

Obviously, Loki was angry or torn about something – desperate, it looked more like, from the sting of his green, green eyes – and Jane was his current target for answers…or perhaps worse, for letting out frustration.

No one could see them. She was sure that Loki had seen to that; he was fond of invisibility, it seemed, and it wouldn't be hard for him to construct a fake version of Jane, not visible to any cameras, as he had done before.

Jane was trapped, like a mouse in a cage—

No one was coming to her rescue.

And by now, she was used to this, too.

Jane had always believed that she was a smart, savvy woman who could take care of herself, though she wasn't so stubborn as to flat-out refuse help when she needed it, but as Loki strode towards her, reminding her of a cobra about to strike, she felt more powerless than she ever had in her life. She couldn't be afraid though – not for herself – and she knew it; Austin's safety was riding as much on her as it was on Erik, and Jane loved Austin more than just about anyone else; she would do anything for the woman she saw as a younger sister, even if it cost her life.

_Stay calm, Jane. Stay calm. Don't antagonize him. _Jane told herself as she drew in a deep breath, waiting for the onslaught that would come.

It began worse than she'd imagined it would.

"I was under the impression that we had a deal, Miss Foster, but I am wondering if that deal has been broken," Loki's words were pointed, like sharp daggers, as he stopped at the side of her bed, all but hissing at her as she shrunk back, fear in her eyes; bravery was proving hard for her in that moment. "I wonder, was it _you_ who told her the truth, or should I simply take my fury out on the good doctor? Perhaps I should punish you both, to make certain I am not missing any blame," Jane's throat felt dry, and she tried to open her mouth to ask him what exactly he was talking about, since she wasn't certain, but her mouth refused to work, and before she could so much as think about uttering a word, Loki began to pace, an urgency she had never before seen in his steps; he was no longer the calm, cool, calculating god of mischief from legend, but instead a worrying mess, more human-looking than he probably realized. "You mortals really are incomprehensibly foolish, putting what you claim to care for in danger, all while saying that you are doing something _good_. You place your worst fears in front of those you claim to wish to protect, and it truly disgusts me. I loathe your kind now more than I ever have. Due to your selfishness, I shall have to keep my end of our little bargain, and Selvig's, and harm that which you were intently, _you said_, trying to protect. I shall have to harm Austen, then, despite the fact that—"

Somewhere amongst the ranting, and pacing, and seeing Loki all but fall to pieces, his eyes fixing on the worn floor beneath him as if she weren't even there – his hands clenching and unclenching into fists, his breathing escalating – the truth dawned on Jane with terrible, heartbreaking clarity, and her mouth fell open.

So, it had happened after all. Her wish, her prayer had come true – just not in the way that she had expected.

She had hoped, had been certain that Austin could change Loki; she had silently betted on it. She just hadn't known how exactly he would change; she hadn't hoped for _this_.

Last time she had seen him interacting with Austin, Jane had become suspicious, but she had never thought that he might come to care for Austin this much.

"You don't want to hurt her," Jane finished for Loki, cutting him off as the realization began to sink in, disbelief coating her tone of voice. She sat up straighter, moved about a bit as Loki suddenly stopped pacing, his emerald eyes widening as he turned to look at her abruptly, his breath caught in his throat, as if the world had halted. He appeared shocked, but only partially, so Jane knew that this wasn't it – it wasn't the _full_ truth, anyway. Swallowing thickly, condemning the consequences of what she was about to say, Jane then pressed on with: "You _won't_ hurt her," finality clinging to the words.

It was a statement, not a question, and this time, the world really did appear to stop turning for Loki as all tension drained from him, and he sighed a relieved though stuttering sigh; it was a sigh full of emotion, of acceptance.

Loki's mouth became a thin line of heartbreak. "No," he told her truthfully, quietly, and Jane nodded slowly as understanding began to pass between them. For once, she felt with certainty that he wasn't lying.

It was more than she had hoped for, and Jane wasn't quite sure what to think of it. She wanted to be relieved, but the truth only served to open up another set of terrors that she hadn't before thought of.

So, Loki had changed towards Austin, but...what about the rest of humanity? What about the people that he claimed to hate, the people that Jane was sure he wished to subjugate, if his superiority complex meant anything. If he could change his opinion about Austin, could he change his opinion about the rest of the human race, as well?

From the look on Loki's face now, it didn't appear so. It appeared, from the way he spoke and the way he gazed at her with those suddenly cold green eyes, that he hated humanity as much as he ever had – and that he hated her more now than ever.

Jane had to admit to herself that she didn't understand, not really. She couldn't begin to fathom fully why Loki hated her so much, though she knew that his hatred stemmed from Thor…because she was connected to him, even from millions of miles away. She knew that she had done something wrong in Loki's eyes, that he blamed her for something—

But what?

Why did he hate her so much? Why did he appear to despise humanity?

And why, of all people, was Austin the one that he had softened his heart towards – the _only_ one?

Sure, Jane had hoped, had prayed that something about Austin would lead Loki to rethink his plans, to consider how many people he would hurt, if he decided to attack the Earth, or whatever else he had in mind. She had taken the spark of attraction that she had seen between the two, and had hoped that it would grow, that somehow Austin – who so many underestimated, who was stronger than she looked, who was one of the sweetest and most understanding people Jane knew – would be the one to save them all, because Jane knew that when it came to it, Thor would not be able to do so; Loki resented Thor too much to listen to him, and there was his pride to consider, too. Thor would fight his brother, though it would pain him, because it was what was right, but Loki didn't seem like the type of person to stick around if he saw the possibility of failure; he would come back, and he would come with reinforcements if it meant accomplishing whatever goal he had.

As Jane watched Loki wrestle with his feelings, the inner war he was having for once visible on his face (he must have, she thought, been terribly overwhelmed by this), another, even more horrifying thought occurred to her, and she felt her face drain of color, the blood rushing from it.

What if she was wrong? What if all of her hopes surrounding Austin had been born for nothing? What if the exact opposite of what she wanted were to happen?

What if, instead of saving their people from danger, Austin's attachment to Loki only put her in worse danger?

Jane realized then that she had been putting too much on Austin's shoulders in her hope, and she felt stupid for it. Here she had been hoping to protect Austin at least, since she couldn't do anything for Erik (his fault, really), but in her hopes of saving the world using Austin, she had done just the opposite. And though she knew that someone was going to have to be put in harm's way if Loki refused to change his mind, the last person she wanted it to be was Austin.

How could she have been so stupid?

She should have done something – should have found some way, no matter what it cost her, to get Austin to leave, to get out of harm's way!

_You've got to find a way to fix this. _Jane admonished herself, trying to steel her nerves, which were close to fraying. The escalation of her heartbeat sounded on the monitor near her, and the sound drew Loki from his inner war. His green eyes settled on her once again, a malignant smirk stretching across his lips, as if he knew what she were thinking; she shivered beneath the smirk, deathly afraid. _You've got to find a way to right your mistake. You owe it to Austin. _

And Jane did owe it to Austin – she knew that. She wasn't blind, and she never had been. She knew that Austin felt as though Jane was more important to her father than she was, and she truly hated that; she had never wanted Austin to feel that way. She knew that she was part of the reason why Erik never took Austin's hopes seriously, part of the reason why she had yet to spread her wings, though she should have done so years ago.

Perhaps she could reason with Loki. Perhaps she could get him to understand what Austin deserved, what would be best for her. Perhaps she could get him to leave her alone—

_Perhaps_…

But probably not.

Jane's lips quivered when she spoke next, afraid to ask the question that she knew she had to ask. "Wh-What are you going to do?" she demanded pathetically, her voice shaking.

"Concerning Austin," Loki didn't have to ask her whom she meant. He casually sat in the chair that lingered by her hospital bed, looking almost bored now, back in control; if he was still fighting a war inside, he had come to control it. Seeing his relaxed look, Jane wanted to cry out for help, but she reminded herself that no one would come to her rescue. They were still invisible, and probably no one currently on Earth stood a chance against Loki. "The best course of action would be to hide her away, until all threat of retaliation is gone – not that it concerns me," Loki answered smoothly, and Jane's mind reeled.

She knew that he must be talking about whatever plot he had in mind, about whatever war it was that he wanted. Her heart rate rose again, and she began to feel a bit dizzy, the monitor sounding loudly.

"You can't do that. She'd never agree to it," Jane managed to answer, her voice only a whisper now, tears pricking at her eyes.

Her worst fear was coming true, and she was doing a pathetic job of stopping it.

Loki regarded her for a moment before his grin vanished, and he leaned forwards towards her, his brilliant eyes blazing. "It is for her good," he told her, and from his tone, she could tell that he fully believed it. "She knows not of what is to come, and I do. I do not care to have what belongs to me in the reach of others."

It was then that Jane felt her blood boil.

Those words. Loki said them so simply, not even blinking, and it infuriated her to the point where, injured or not, terrified or not, she moved without thinking.

Before either Jane or Loki could foresee what would happen, Jane had scampered forward on the bed, nearly ripping the IV from her arm, nearing the rogue god. With a burst of rage her hand flew out, and she slapped him hard, her hand aching nearly immediately.

Had Jane not been so infuriated, and Loki not been so surprised by her attack, she probably would have been dead at that moment – but Jane _was_ infuriated, and Loki _was_ surprised, his eyes widening as he reached up to touch his battered cheek.

"How dare you!" Jane bellowed, the tears that had been brimming her eyes falling, her hands shaking violently, she was so angry. "Who do you think you are? No – I don't care who you think you are. I don't care if you're some alien turned god who is going to destroy us all. You have no right to say something like that!" Jane spat, swiping at her tears fitfully. "Austin is a _person_, not a _thing_!"

Gone was the fear of what Loki might do to her. Gone was the fear that her world might be destroyed. Gone was Jane's fear for her life, or for Erik's.

_Gone_.

She knew that anyone watching the scene would color her crazy, if she were visible and Loki wasn't, but she didn't care. Perhaps it was the fact that Jane herself had wronged Austin so many times without wanting to, perhaps it was the fact that Jane knew the truth when Austin may or may not have (obviously, Loki felt that she knew), and perhaps it was the fact that she had seen, firsthand, what people treating Austin like an object had done to her so far, but whatever it was, she stopped caring then, and she stopped being afraid.

Her worry and fear could go to hell, for all she cared.

Jane didn't have much time to feel proud of herself, or to feel accomplished, however, because once again, Loki did the exact opposite of what she expected—

Loki laughed.

It was that humored, cold, condescending laugh of his, and it made Jane's blood boil all the more, though it also made her feel chilled, defeated.

It didn't matter what she said, Jane realized then. No matter what, Loki was going to twist her words, was going to make them into whatever he wanted them to be. He really was a silver-tongue.

Loki's laugh seemed to echo throughout the room as he withdrew his hand from his cheek, and Jane gasped; there wasn't even a mark. "Oh, I do like this. How utterly humorous, to hear you say something like that, Jane Foster," Loki said, biting out her name, his tone deadly, though his grin had returned. He leaned forward towards her again; deathly close as she resigned herself to the fact that nothing she could say would change anything. "You are so very rash – no wonder Thor fancies you. You and that pathetic excuse for a father treat Austin much more like an object than I ever have," he ground out, and looking into his eyes, Jane could see more than words, more than lies to make her feel defeated – she could see condemnation, too.

Loki actually meant what he was saying. He actually felt that way, felt that he treated Austin better than they did, or had.

And the sad thing was...maybe he was right.

No – he _was_ right. Jane couldn't pretend that he wasn't. She couldn't hide behind that lie, and live with herself, or she would be no better than Loki was.

More tears welled in her eyes as Loki's grin became triumphant, before those tears fell, streaking down her face. But, she didn't cry because of him – no, she cried for what she had done, and all without meaning to. She cried because she had never allowed herself to see the full truth, to see that she had never treated Austin with as much respect as she deserved.

Jane had played into Erik's attempts to make her his second daughter, because she had felt bereft without her father there, all while she had told herself that she felt badly for Austin. She had never fully stood up for Austin when the younger woman had stated her dreams, that she didn't want to follow in her father's footsteps, all while she had told herself that Austin was like a sister, that she was looking out for her. She had never confronted Austin about the way either she or Erik treated her, had never asked her how they could change things to make them better, what they could do to make her feel more included, all while telling herself that she did what was best for Austin, that she was the one person who treated her best.

Jane had, ever since she'd known Austin, been much more cruel than Loki, and the thought of it made her sick.

And now, what could she do? There was no changing the rogue god's mind, no saving Austin – if she even wanted to be saved, which...

She didn't.

Maybe Loki hadn't noticed it yet, but Jane had. Austin was attached to the mischief-maker, and that sort of attachment wasn't going to be easy to break, unless—

Jane swallowed thickly as she sat back, knowing what she had to do, her hands shaking once again. This time, she wouldn't be selfish. This time, she would actually do what was best for Austin, because she knew how the younger woman would react when she learned the truth about Loki. This time, she would give into what the man she had come to hate most wanted, in a way.

_I wish I could spare Austin heartbreak. I think I've given her enough. _Jane thought then as she took in a deep breath, steeling herself.

She wasn't going to try and change Loki's mind. She wasn't going to argue with him. She wasn't going to plead and hope that he would disappear, that he would somehow cast aside evil wishes overnight. She was a scientist; it was time to face reality, life as it was.

This was all that she could do: offer him an alternate route, because she knew Austin.

"You're right," Jane managed to say then, though her voice was shaky, tears still streaming down her throat. Loki's eyes flashed with pleasure at his triumph. "I've been terrible to Austin, we all have. I haven't been much better than Erik has, and Austin deserves more – she deserves more than all of us, especially you," she said, and though she expected Loki to lash out at her, he didn't. His lips simply dipped down into a scowl, though on some small level, Jane almost felt as if he agreed with her; maybe he didn't think as highly of himself as he appeared to, though she doubted he would ever admit to it. "But, I can't change the past, and obviously you're intent on changing the future. So, I'm going to make a deal with you – one last deal. And then you can do whatever you want, whatever you were planning on doing anyway."

Jane didn't want to fight anymore, because in this fight, she could do nothing. She had accepted that. Now, it was all up to Austin – and S.H.I.E.L.D., and Thor, and whoever else could be found to even begin to match Loki.

She was no superhero; she was a scientist. But though she had made mistakes, she was still proud of who she was.

Upon hearing her bargain, or the beginning of it, another grin appeared on Loki's face as he too sat back, offering her a condescending laugh. "And why, pray tell, should I be at all interested in any bargain you may have to give?" he asked her, tilting his head back slightly so that he could look down the bridge of his nose at her.

Jane sighed as she set her jaw in determination, lamenting over how obnoxious this man was. But, she understood: Loki felt that, in some way, Jane had led to Austin discovering who he was. And maybe he was right; maybe she had said something she shouldn't have without thinking about it. But what he was missing was this: Austin was smart enough to figure it out on her own.

Or maybe he knew that, and simply couldn't resist the chance to make Jane feel small.

Either way, it didn't matter. Jane felt that her sense of inferiority could join her fear and worry in hell.

"Because," Jane stated then, fixing Loki with a dead stare, still trembling slightly, "I know how Austin will react to the truth, and it won't be how you want her to."

* * *

><p>Austin stared at the front entranceway to the building, wondering if she would be lucky enough for them to allow her in without a fuss. The building was imposing, though not overly detailed or impressive, and for some reason, looking at it made her chest tighten in worry.<p>

_Maybe I should have called dad, asked him to let me in. _Austin thought with a sigh, tucking a lock of hair behind an ear. _Though, he probably would have told me not to come. _

Yes, she could see it now: her father cooped up in some lab doing some experiment, his face an expression of concentration. He probably wouldn't have even bothered to answer the phone, now that she thought about it. He would have been no help whatsoever.

Perhaps someone inside would be willing to let her in; perhaps they wouldn't ask too many questions. After all, her identification clearly stated that she was Austin Selvig; she was pretty sure that any receptionist working for S.H.I.E.L.D. would be able to tell if her ID was fake. Maybe she could pull one of her ultimate trump cards: she knew Director Fury...though she had only met him a handful of times, and had only had very short, somewhat stilted conversation; as business partners, Tony had introduced her mother to the capable director, and he had appeared at various functions.

Deciding that she had nothing left to lose (or little left, anyway), Austin swallowed thickly, gathered her courage, and entered through the door into the world of S.H.I.E.L.D—

She was immediately greeted by a tall dark-skinned man who was sadly not the Director, wearing a suit, who looked down at her curiously, though his face remained mostly stoic. In the background, a receptionist typed away at a desk, not even looking up. The lobby made the building look like it belonged to a normal, non-top secret business, but Austin knew better.

Her father had told them that he was working for S.H.I.E.L.D., as they were already familiar with the organization, but she had no idea what he was doing, save the fact that it was science.

"This building is strictly off-limits to everyone save personnel, ma'am. May I see your identification?" the man asked in a tone that quietly told Austin she would be better off not bothering with the identification, and simply leaving, his hand moving dangerously close to his side, where Austin was sure a concealed gun lingered.

But, Austin was not to be deterred so easily. She was both determined and confident, though a little wary.

If she could deal with Tony, she could deal with anyone.

Austin carefully reached into her purse, pulling out her wallet. She noticed the man stiffen ever so slightly, as if preparing for a gun, his hand twitching, landing to rest on something through the material of his jacket. She pulled out her ID to show him, and he relaxed (maybe he was new; body-guards and agents usually didn't react so visibly). "My name is Austin. I'm Doctor Selvig's daughter. I want to see him," she explained impatiently.

Truth be told, she was feeling quite impatient. Not only did she have dinner to prepare and a house to clean (gosh, she sounded like a housewife, though she had always enjoyed being at home), but she had reached her last straw, and was eager to learn her father's secrets.

There was no getting away from her this time. Her father would tell her the truth, or—

Well, she didn't know what she would do, but at this point she was tempted to never speak to him again, as childish as that sounded. This secret keeping had gone far enough, and she was tired of being in the dark, especially since she saw the negative affect it was having on her father, not to mention the fact that whatever secrets were taking away from him spending time with her. Austin wasn't terribly worried over her own wellbeing, because she didn't feel like she was in danger, but she was worried about her father's health, especially mental; he never became obsessive with things that were fantastical…until now.

Austin tapped her foot impatiently, and the agent shook his head after examining her ID.

"I'm sorry, Miss Selvig. I cannot allow you to enter," he said simply, standing to his full height then, as if to intimidate her. Austin noticed that he didn't give her a reason, and she wondered if he believed her ID might be a fake.

Austin frowned at this development, and then scowled. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to be rude, but I_ need_ to see my father, sir. This really can't wait," she said, allowing anger to get the best of her for a moment.

The agent sighed slightly, as if he were the one putout by the fact that she wouldn't be allowed further into the building, and opened his mouth to speak again—

But before he could get another word out, a second man appeared from a doorway leading off into the unseen, ever more calm than the first, smiling at Austin brightly as if he were a car salesman. Austin blinked, truly surprised to see someone she recognized, though a similar smile alighted on her face.

"It's alright, Zimmerman, I'll take it from here," Agent Coulson spoke, offering his fellow S.H.I.E.L.D. member a curt nod. The man named Zimmerman hesitated for only the briefest of seconds before he nodded as well, and then walked off to attend to some other business, giving Austin a passing glance.

Austin's smile widened as Coulson signaled for her to follow him, and they exited the room through the door he had entered from, and began to walk down a string of hallways, her attention becoming focused on the agent rather than the surroundings, because all of the hallways looked the same; they stopped a few times for Coulson to punch in his clearance. She was tempted to tackle him with a hug, but she knew how important looking professional was to him.

As they walked, Coulson talked, matching her steps. "Austin, I'll admit I didn't expect to see you here. Did Eric ask you to come?" he questioned in a friendly manner, and Austin wondered if he had seen through her already; it wouldn't be the first time, and it wouldn't be at all surprising, either. Maybe someone had decided that she should know about her father's work, since she was becoming…involved; maybe she was more involved than she had previously thought.

Agent Coulson was, like Director Fury, another person that Austin had met thanks to Tony.

Austin prepared herself to lie, fighting to not look at the floor. "Yes, he did," she said after a brief pause, and was surprised at how easily the lie came...she felt a bit ashamed at herself.

Austin had always been very against lying, but her dislike of it had only increased after her parents had divorced. They had hid the truth from her for quite some time, had hid the breaking apart of their marriage for some ideal, and by the time that they had told her, the damage had already been done. Austin had felt the sting of betrayal, because suddenly her parents had become strangers – they had begun to act differently, not only around each other, but also around her, no longer able to keep up their ruse that everything was perfect, that they were who they had once been.

This was another way in which Austin understood how Lee felt about his brother, about the stranger that he had become. So many people in her life, it seemed, had become people who she did not recognize, and not all of them for the better...not her parents.

Whether he sensed the lie or not, Agent Coulson accepted it, and for that Austin silently thanked him.

"I see," he said, before he graced her with another smile, leading her down another hallway ending at an elevator, which they entered silently. He pressed a set of keys affixed to the wall, and then the door closed smoothly and they began to travel downwards, more that one story. Then, he turned to look at her, and Austin thought she glimpsed a small amount of nervousness in his normally controlled expression. "So, your mother…" he started, fondness evident in his voice.

Turning her thoughts away from lies and change, Austin smiled once more, raising an eyebrow at him.

Oh, now she understood why he was nervous.

"Mom can be pretty terrifying when she's angry," she said knowingly, and though he didn't nod, there was distinct agreement in Agent Coulson's eyes. "I think she's upset at dad – no, I _know_ she is. She hates that he hasn't been properly talking to me, but I wouldn't worry. I'll call her soon, so the next time she talks to you, she should be less snippy," Austin promised.

Coulson laughed, and it was a warm though practiced sound. "I honestly think I would rather deal with the Hulk than your mother when she's angry," he said, and Austin nodded feverishly.

It must have been difficult to be dating a woman who had been married, previously, to one of your collogues. Her father really did make everything more complicated…

"Yeah, I can see that," she said, and then diverted the discussion to something lighter, more happy. "But, mom has started practicing the cello again. It's all coming back to her rather quickly, it seems. She's been phoned a few times, asking for a performance," she relayed, remembering the look of both pride and excitement on her mother's face.

Coulson nodded. "I'll bring her flowers," he said, and then it was Austin's turn to laugh.

She didn't remember when it had happened, but somewhere between meeting for the first time at one of Tony's press releases and now, her mother and Agent Coulson had begun dating (and Austin even had a sneaking suspicion that he might be inclined to ask her mother for her hand someday soon). It was the first time since her father had left that Austin's mother was actually interested in anyone, and though it had been odd for Austin to see her mother with another man at first, she had quickly come to enjoy Coulson's company. They got along rather well, and she enjoyed his no-nonsense approach to life.

Plus, he was very polite, and she loved that about him. Sometimes she pictured him fighting villains, telling them to back down or stop their nefarious deeds – only, he said _please_.

The elevator delivered them to their destination then, and Austin's mouth fell open slightly when they walked out of the small space and into a large room, seemingly cavernous. She looked up at the ceiling to discover that it was quite tall, the room stretching at least a football field, maybe two. Coulson led her past busy scientists and other agents, nodding to a few, and Austin marveled at the strange machine not far off that seemed to eat the entire room, twisting and turning with cables and wire, metal joined by computers—

In the center of all the technology sat a strange looking contraption, gently cuddling a glowing, blue cube.

The moment Austin's eyes found the cube, her focus narrowed, as if the gently shining object were all that existed in the universe, as if it were capturing her soul. Her breath caught, her palms began to sweat, her heartbeat sped, and though she was sure she was dreaming, she could have swore that she heard a voice, soft and whisper-like, call her name.

_Austin. _

It was a feminine voice, alluring and strange, though oddly...comforting, in a way.

_Austin, finally you are here. _

Austin felt herself being drawn towards the cube, feeling as though she were a doll moved by someone else.

_Austin, I have been waiting for you to arrive. _

Austin's concentration was momentarily broken by Coulson, whose hand alighted on her shoulder just then, causing her to jump slightly. She looked up at him to see worry in his eyes, but he didn't mention it verbally. "Austin, it appears your father is at another station. I'll go get him. Remain here," he said, the last bit slightly firm, and Austin nodded absentmindedly, only half hearing him.

Her mind felt sluggish and clouded all of a sudden. She couldn't concentrate, and more than anything, she just wanted him to go away, to leave her be...to leave her with the cube. It was important that she reach it.

_Austin, come close. _

Austin's lips parted slightly to form a reply to the whispered, soft words that she could somehow hear above the noise in the room – the tapping of keys, the talking, the footsteps – and she barely even noticed it as Coulson left, her attention once again becoming locked on the glowing mass before her, not too far away, but too far away for comfort.

Unconsciously, she began walking forward towards the cube, not heeding anything said against the movement, any requests or demands that she stop. Nothing existed in that moment, save the glowing mass and her, and as she neared it, reaching her hand out as if to grasp the glowing object, she felt it—

It felt like lightning, like pain, like power, and before she knew it, the world around her no longer existed...

But another world did.

Austin opened her eyes to see it: a seemingly infinite space stretched out before her, waves of blue rippling through the sky, an ornate staircase curving a few steps off. Breathing deeply and trusting her instincts, Austin stepped forward towards the stairs, walking up them with a grace she did not feel she normally possessed. The air around her continued to shift, chaotic, mist appearing, and fear crept into her as she walked up step by step, but when she reached the top of the staircase and stepped out onto a large white, ivory dais, her eyes landing on the tall and serene figure that lingered at its edge, standing ready and waiting with hands clasped, her fear vanish—

That fear was instead replaced by apprehension, and by the sense that her life was about to get much, much more complicated.

"Austin," the figure, a woman with violet-blue skin and angular features, wearing a flowing, cream-colored dress said as she began to walk towards Austin, stretching out a hand in welcome. "I have been waiting for you. It is time," she said, and Austin realized then that the woman, whoever she was, had the same voice as—

Austin breathed in a sharp breath, nearly painful. "It was you," she said with conviction. "You were – you spoke to me in that room, the one I was just in. Your voice, it came from that cube, didn't it?" for some reason, the idea that could be true made her feel fear all over again.

"Yes, Austin, but you have nothing to fear from me," the woman replied somewhat sadly as she stopped walking only a few feet away, her hand still extended. "I have brought you here to speak with you, to help prepare you for the future. As I said, it is _time_. It has already begun, and you, my child, will be the one to sway the tide."

A chill crept into Austin's bones as she digested this information, unease added to the emotions she was already feeling.

What did this woman mean? Where was she? How had she gotten there?

And why did she suddenly feel as if a chapter in her life was coming to an end? As if normality were about to vanish completely…

Austin steeled herself for the worst, and asked what she knew would be a fateful question: "What, exactly, is it time for?"

She almost didn't want to hear the answer. Part of her just wanted to go home, to make dinner, to question her father, to see Lee again, but somehow she knew that she couldn't. Somehow, she knew that this conversation was important, that she was meant to speak to this woman.

Austin had never been extraordinary, and she knew it. She was a simple girl, with relatively simply dreams – but in that moment, she felt anything but simple.

The woman's eyes, thoroughly blue and deep as the ocean, became heavy with worry and sorrow, and a tear escaped. "My dear, I wish that I did not have to place this burden on you, but you are the only one. The tesseract is specific, and it chose you," she said, before she took a deep breath, her breathing sounding frail, as if she were having trouble breathing. "But, to answer your question: the time has come for the battle, for fate to take its course, for the universe to meet its destiny. The one who holds this destiny in his hands, he will need you," the woman finished, another tear falling.

And suddenly, Austin understood – not everything, but one thing…one thing that had been secretly plaguing her mind, that had been eating away at her.

It all made sense now, and though she was angry, she also felt relieved.

"So," she managed, letting out a pent-up sigh, "Lee really is Loki."

* * *

><p><strong>Hello, dear readers!<strong>

**Oh my God! I am so sorry for taking forever to update this story. This has been a crazy year for me, full of plenty of illnesses and some really awful family issues, not to mention heavy work hours. But, the good news is, this story is not discontinued or on hiatus! I am working on finishing it, and I do have a sequel in place (set during the Avengers), and maybe even...a story after that. We shall see. It all depends on Thor 2, really. **

**I won't be updating as quickly as before, but I will try to be more consistent now. I'm adding a few more chapters to this story than I originally planned, too.**

**I hope the S.H.I.E.L.D. bit was alright. I've never been to a top-secret building before, so I wasn't sure how exactly it would operate! This isn't the same place as in the Avengers, but...I won't give anything away. **

**A note: Yes, Austin has known all this time where her dad worked, but not what he did. Also, concerning Coulson, apparently him dating a cellist in the Avengers was a reference to the Scarlet Witch (yay!), but here he is dating Austin's mom, who isn't the Scarlet Witch, sorry. If you're wondering if Loki will be Coulson's demise later on, like in Avengers (ignoring Agents of Shield), well, again, I won't give it away. **

**Fun reference: Austin imagines Coulson saying 'please' to villains, just like he does Loki in the Avengers. **

**Anyway, please review and let me know what you think! I'm sorry if it's a bit off, since I haven't written this fic for a while. I'll do my best with the rest!**

**~ Cross**


	8. Chapter 8: Coping With Change

**The Science of Mystery**

_Chapter Eight: Coping With Change_

Austin stared at the spectacularly ethereal woman as the woman's eyes widened, becoming like saucers. A smile much like Lee's – well, Loki's – threatened to alight on her face at the sight, but she suppressed it the best she could.

She didn't blame the woman for being surprised; she herself was surprised.

To tell the truth, she had known for a while – known Lee's secret, his true identity. The knowledge had been lurking in the back of her mind, unseen, unrecognized, but it had been there. In a way, she had been denying it; why, she didn't know.

Perhaps she had been afraid; if not, she was afraid now. Not afraid of Loki really, because she knew him well enough now to not be afraid of him, because she understood the reason behind his pain – but afraid of what the truth might bring about. Everything had been so much simpler before, when her life had been...normal.

But _had_ her life ever been normal, really?

Truthfully, no; her life had not been normal for a while, if it had ever been normal at all; it had not been normal at least since her parent's divorce, since meeting Tony, since Iron-Man's creation, since Lee—

Nothing was normal anymore, and if this otherworldly woman were to be believed, nothing would ever be normal again.

And somehow, even though she was scared, Austin was alright with this idea, that things would never be normal, that the rest of her life would be lived in oddity. If there was anything she had learned, it was that she could cope with change—

What she didn't like, however, was being lied to; she had been lied to far too much in her life for her liking, and by people she loved. Loki, despite the fact that this was one of the things he was known for, would have some heavy explaining to do, and she wasn't willing to forgive him easily for such a large slight. After everything they had been through, she expected some honesty at least, and though she wasn't happy, and wasn't willing to forgive him on the spot, she did want to hear his side of the story.

"You already know," the woman said then, drawing Austin from her thoughts, speaking of Loki, and her knowledge concerning his true identity. Her shock wore off, and she smiled. "No wonder the tesseract chose you."

Austin swallowed hard at this, frowning. It was time to get some answers now. She was tired of being in the dark, tired of everyone underestimating her by not telling her the truth, trying to protect her in a roundabout way that included not being honest with her; realizing that Lee was indeed Loki, she was positive that this is what her father had been doing, why he had been cryptically warning her, and trying to get her to leave, instead of coming out and speaking the truth.

She fixed the woman with a serious expression, gathering her courage before she spoke, demanding: "Alright, what exactly is this tesseract you're mentioning? Please stop being vague, if it has anything to do with me," she said, being forceful yet oddly polite.

"You are upset," the woman observed keenly, her head tilting in a way that said she was examining Austin, unsure of the reasoning behind her feelings.

Austin sighed, feeling her shoulders slump, feeling the weight of the world rest upon them. She was beginning to notice a change within herself, and though she liked the change, it was...well, _new_.

Austin had always had opinions – how could she not when she was surrounded by such outspoken people as her mother and Tony? – but she had never been very good at voicing them. She had always been too afraid of upsetting people, of hurting her relationships. But now, ever since she had met Loki, she was beginning to make her thoughts known; he had inspired her, in a way, to begin being honest...humorous, considering he often employed, and was known for, the opposite, though Austin had always felt he was more honest than given credit for, at least in the myths; it was an honesty that most people didn't want to hear, however, blatant truth that sounded cruel.

Austin offered the woman an apologetic smile, feeling slightly shamed that she was taking her annoyance out on someone she had just met. "I'm sorry," she said with conviction. "I'm...just frustrated with the fact that no one seems to be able to give me any information up front. Everything has to be some – some shady secret," she said, her fists tightening at the mention of secrets, though her heart felt lighter having let out part of her frustration, having told someone about it.

It was nice to finally speak about it, whether or not the ethereal woman cared; Austin truly didn't mind if she did or did not care.

"I am sorry to be...vague," to Austin's surprise, the woman apologized as well, and she smiled in relief. "I shall tell you the truth, my dear. Both the tesseract and I wish it," she said, spreading her arms in a welcoming gesture. Behind her, the sky around them shifted, as if agreeing.

Austin nodded solemnly, preparing to listen – preparing for her life to change. She felt the change coming, as if she could sense it, was connected to it already.

"The tesseract – the blue...cube you saw before you were brought to this place – was born on my world," the woman began, reminiscence overcoming her expression. "It is a source of power, of energy, but it cannot exist alone; it is a living thing, and it too needs a sense of...companionship, a life to share its life, a life to connect to," the woman's expression became saddened on this note, and she looked down at the ground beneath them, the crumbling stone dais.

"My people, we were short living. We existed perhaps twenty of your human years, at most, but those years were happy ones, at first. Every five years, one of us would be chosen to...bond, I suppose you could say, with the tesseract for a period of time, to keep it living. Time passed this way, but eventually fear surfaced, as it always does, and our people became uneasy, unhappy, and the tesseract grew worried."

"When it became my duty to bond to the artifact, my people were at war, close to destroying themselves from their fear, which turned to anger, which turned to greed. The tesseract tried to communicate with them through me, to tell them to return to their true selves, to return to peace, but none would listen. It was then, before my people destroyed themselves in a final battle, that the tesseract asked the hardest of me," the woman faltered, drawing in a sharp yet ragged breath, before continuing with:

"Those bound to it before lived...outside of the artifact, but as our people waged war, the tesseract asked me to tie myself to it as no one had before. In this sense, we would exist with one another – I would exist within it – and its power would be dampened, not measuring but a fourth. Together, we would search for another to take my place, to bring about its true power at last. It told me the truth then..." the woman said heavily, before she looked up at Austin, eyes dark and filled once again with sorrow, as well as...a plea for forgiveness?

Austin swallowed thickly, feeling the pressure of what would be asked of her, even before it was asked. She knew not what the woman would beg, but she knew that this plea, whatever it may be, would lead to the large change in her life, her destiny.

She wasn't sure if she were ready or not – but what choice did she have? Life did not stop to ask if you were ready, and if you weren't, it continued on anyway, and dragged you along with it.

"The tesseract was created to be a...life preserver for my people, to prolong their lives. But, once it was born, it refused. It saw the chaos that lurked deep within us even then, and it did not wish to subject the rest of the cosmos to it; it hoped that we would change, but in its heart it foresaw the future. Its creator tried to destroy it for its defiance, but ended up destroying himself instead. Then, the tesseract fell into the hands of my people's elders, shortly before their deaths, and told them of its need to bond to another living being. It kept its true purpose, and power, hidden for years, and with its creator gone, my people knew not of its full power; they knew only what it would tell them."

"Knowing that, due to my race and our lack of longevity, my life would only be prolonged so far if I were to continue to exist outside of the tesseract, I took its plea to heart, and sealed myself inside of it; even with its power, our race was not suited to a long life as you would think of it, and so we searched for my replacement. My people destroyed themselves; there was nothing I could do to stop them," the woman said, tears leaving her eyes, streaking down her pale face. "Possession of the tesseract then fell to Odin of Asgard. He locked us away, and we waited...until we found our savior", she said, hopeful smile appearing through her tears, "–until we found _you_."

Austin swallowed thickly once more, stepping back slightly, before she held her ground.

This was so much to take in.

So, this tesseract, it was alive – the cube? It prolonged its partner's life, made them, what, immortal? Or it was supposed to, anyway, but it had hid its true power from the woman's people, and even the woman could not live as long as the tesseract wanted – and humans were thought the lowest creatures in the cosmos!

Did that mean that this tesseract wanted to bond with her, to make her live forever? Austin wasn't entirely sure how she felt about that.

"What do you want me to do?" Austin asked the fateful question then, knowing it had to be spoken, her voice wavering only slightly.

The woman smiled wider, but the smile was distorted, too overcome by sadness now. "You, dear Austin, can create a bond with the tesseract as was intended from the beginning. Humans are weak, but not so weak as my people – you will far outlive me, in corporeal form, and there is something humans have that most other races do not, due to their weakness: heart. The tesseract will share its power with you, and you will share your life with it. It has been searching for you, always," she said, her smile becoming more real on that note.

Austin frowned, unable to believe what she was hearing. An object of power had been searching for her – her, a human, unremarkable and plain – for eons? It didn't seem possible, and even if it had, it didn't seem probable.

"Why me?" the question had to be asked, just as the last one had, and ask it she did.

It just didn't make sense. Out of all the humans on the Earth, the coveted object of power had chosen her – unsuspecting, flawed her, who had yet to fully shape her life. She was not the worst of people, certainly, but neither was she the best person; surely, there was another person who would have been more suited to the...job.

It was such a large weight, this woman was asking her to bear.

The air around them shifted again, the blue colors swirling, and Austin then wondered if this were the tesseract speaking. Would she be able to hear it, if she...bonded, or whatever?

Why was she entertaining the idea?

The woman cocked her head, as if listening, before she spoke again. "You, as I have said, will be needed. _He_ will need you, the one whose destiny it is to change the universe."

"Loki," Austin said, not needing to ask whom she meant.

The woman's eyes became dark with a swiftness that sent shivers down Austin's spine. Suddenly, she appeared more terrifying than benevolent, and Austin could easily picture the war that had destroyed her people then, if they had all had that same darkness appear. "Yes, he is the destroyer, fated to bring destruction to all of creation," the woman said with a hiss, and Austin stepped back once more, surprised by her vehemence. "He must be stopped – and you will be the one to stop him; it is in this way that he 'needs' you."

"Me?" Austin asked incredulously, her heart beginning to beat more quickly now—

But not in fear.

No, she was angry.

"Yes," the woman nodded, features growing dark as well now. "You will wield the tesseract – and more than that, you have a special connection to this...Loki. If anyone can destroy him, it is you."

Austin's eyes widened before her fists tightened even more tight, and her breathing became heavy.

Finally, she could not hold her anger in any longer. She let it loose. "I'm – I'm not going to destroy him!" she said, shaking her head forcefully, appalled by the very idea of what the woman was suggesting. "I can't do that. I _can't_."

"He would destroy the universe, and you would let him? You cannot save someone who is fated to end everything – and he _will _end it; the tesseract has shown me the future, and one day, it will show you, as well," the woman shot back, also appearing angry now, her dark features contorting as she appeared to grow—

But, Austin didn't care. She knew wrongness when she saw it.

Austin's blood pumped so quickly, she could hear her pulse beating in her ears. "I'm not going to save him. I'm not stupid. You can't make people change – but that doesn't mean I'm going to destroy someone without giving them a chance to change! The future isn't concrete, we shape it with our choices, and Loki, he—" Austin realized that she was crying then, feeling the wetness on her cheeks, but she didn't care. "He – he isn't a monster, he's just been hurt. And more hurt only leads to worse things. He may have done wrong things, and I'm in no way excusing them, but that does not mean he's irredeemable, if he doesn't want to be. He needs someone to see him as a person, someone to listen and not give up on him, someone to remind him that he can change, if he wants to, and show him why he should, why he still has a place in the world. If no one takes the time to help, to listen, then he won't have any _chance_ of changing!" she shouted, and then stopped abruptly, feeling strangely tired and heavy.

This woman couldn't ask her to destroy Loki, not without giving him a chance. She wouldn't do it. She refused. She knew what it was like, to not be given a chance, for others to assume and expect nothing but a specific thing of you, and it was not fair; it was instead heartbreaking.

...But, if it came down to choosing between Loki and the rest of the universe, should he refuse to change his ways, to end the chance of destruction before it started, would she have the strength to destroy him then, if, as the woman said, she would be the only one who could do it?

Austin truly didn't know if she would be able to make that momentous a decision, and that truly scared her – scared her to her core. It should have been an easy yes, a concrete decision that she made beforehand, but as she pondered the possibility, she found that she truly did not know what she would choose.

Why was that? Why was this decision so hard? Because she didn't want to believe that Loki might not choose to change, have his pain remedied before he brought pain to everyone else? Was it because she hated to see that pain, and wanted it healed?

Why was the thought such an ugly one?

"You are in love with him," the woman said then, her large eyes widening as she took a step back instead this time, her voice faltering. She appeared to pale, though her skin was such a light shade anyway, it was only partially noticeable, and the darkness began to drain from her, her features appearing kind once more. "You are endeared to him, and yet the tesseract chose you, anyway. I do not understand," she said, shaking her head, casting her gaze to the shifting haze surrounding them, as if it could tell her the answers. "I do not understand."

Austin felt the need to respond, and opened her mouth to do so, to deny what the woman had just said – but then she realized that what the woman had just said was the truth, and she closed her mouth again, feeling strangely unsurprised by this revelation. Perhaps, as with 'Lee's' true identity, she had known it for a while now.

Some found themselves terribly afraid when they discovered that they cared intensely for a person, but this knowledge did not terrify Austin as she had expected it would, when the time came. Instead, she felt strangely empowered by it, strangely at ease with it, because in a way it made things easier; to her, it felt like a strength, especially with the things that, apparently, she would have to face in the coming future. She could not say it would be easy, but something about knowing the truth made her feel at peace.

Love – real love – was strength, despite what most people thought. It allowed you to think outside of yourself, to gain a bigger scope of the world through lack of selfishness. In Austin's society, love was so often equated with floating feelings and physicality, but if talk of the trial she would have to face in the future – the possible destruction of the universe – was bringing to light anything, it was the fact that these things were rather trivial in the end.

Austin sighed, and fixed her gaze upon the woman, saying: "Yes, I do love him, and maybe that's why the tesseract chose me. Your people, you say they became afraid, and angry, and greedy, and in all of that, they must have forgotten love and peace and happiness," she smiled slightly then, the calm spreading, feeling that she knew what to do now, concerning what was being asked of her. "Perhaps, in order to hopefully avoid the destruction of the universe, what's needed isn't violence or physical strength, but understanding and love."

"You are wise beyond your years, dear Austin – and I am so, so sorry for you," the woman replied, shaking her head slightly, tears once more streaming down her face as she began to walk forwards, towards Austin, who was surprised by the action. "I am so, so sorry for you," the woman repeated, before she asked, almost quietly: "Does this mean that you will agree, that you will accept the tesseract and what it is offering?" pity pouring from her eyes in the form of liquid tears.

Part of Austin wished to say no, to tell the woman that she was not suited towards this supposed bond, that she didn't want to be connected to the fate of the universe – that she simply wanted to write, and publish, and prove herself to her father – but she knew that she couldn't; it would not be right, and she would always regret it.

In some ways, Austin felt as though she had been running all of her life – running from her mother's clinginess, running from her father's doubt and disappointment, running from Tony's overwhelming charisma and hidden sadness. Before, she had thought that she was running from everyone's expectations; that she was running from what everyone else wished for her life, but now she realized that she had only been running from herself.

She had always wished to be strong, but she had never stood up for anything before. She had always wished to be successful, but she had never put in the time or the work. She had always wished to heard; but she had never spoken very loud.

All this time, she had been running from herself: from making decisions, and making herself known. She had wished for the best, but she had only wished, only sat by placidly—

Now, she would have to act. Now, she would have to work for a better future, to make a better future, not simply hope for it. Now, she would have to do everything she could, instead of hoping that someday, everything would fall into place.

Now, she realized that while she had been trying to run away, she had only been running towards herself.

Austin took in a deep breath, steeled herself, and then spoke, head held high, saying: "Yes, I agree. I will accept the tesseract, and its bond. I will do everything I can to ensure the safety of the universe and its people – all while trying to get Loki to see that he isn't a monster," when she spoke, her voice was firm, and she felt immensely proud of herself.

She would do this.

She had made her choice.

The world around them, the sky, shifted once more as the woman nodded sadly, reaching Austin, laying a hand upon the human's cheek as she spoke, more tears spilling. "Very well, dear Austin. I bequeath the tesseract, as much as it is mine to give, to you. But, I shall do you a kindness before I go, vanishing onwards to be with my fallen people," she said, causing Austin's eyebrows to furrow in curiosity, the look in her eyes woeful. "The tesseract's powers will pass to you, dear Austin, and I will fade – but, you will not recall this meeting, this interaction, nor your connection to the artifact, until you absolutely must," she said, moving the hand that was cupping Austin's cheek to her forehead, as if she were checking the human's temperature.

"What do you—" Austin began to speak, but before she could finish her sentence, the world began to fade to black, and the ethereal woman vanished forever.

* * *

><p>Erik Selvig felt immense panic grip him as he knelt next to his daughter, who was splayed along the floor of the large lab – if it could be called that – where they were keeping the tesseract now; before, it had been in his smaller, more personal lab, but with everything that had happened, Fury felt the more trusted hands that surrounded it, the better (some might have thought this unwise, to have so many people surrounding it, but it was well known that Fury trusted his agents much more than he trusted Erik at the moment). His first thought was the strange voice he had heard before, what he was certain had been the tesseract speaking, saying his daughter's name. He had attempted to brush the incident aside, tell himself he had done no more than dream it, but in his heart, he knew that it had happened.<p>

And now here she was, his daughter, passed out on the floor before the cube, appearing nearly lifeless.

"What happened?" Erik heard Agent Coulson, who he had not been on good terms with lately, bark in the background, speaking to the nearest agent, as he felt for Austin's pulse—

Good, still beating. He knew they would not have called him otherwise, because they considered him to be a bit fragile at the moment (his anxiety over Loki had not gone unnoticed, unfortunately), but he had been worried for his daughter's life all the same.

"It – it was an accident, sir. A lack of vigilance on our part. She just...she touched the cube, and then she was out, instantly," the agent speaking to Coulson replied, but Erik barely heard them—

He was too busy sobbing in relief as Austin's eyes opened, and he pulled her into his arms, somehow babbling the words: "Austin! Austin, you're alive! You're alive! What on Earth happened to you?"

He had been so worried, so very, very worried. His second thought was that Loki had somehow staged this, just to mess with him, just to remind him that he was no more than a dog in the rogue god's eyes, and that had terrified him, but now...now he was simply glad that Austin was alive. Nothing else mattered at the moment; he could worry about the rest later.

He was tired of worrying, anyway. He didn't care; he just wanted Austin to be safe.

...And, in some way, so did Loki, he had a feeling, though he was sure the mischief-maker would never admit it. The more Erik thought about their interactions, the more this made sense, though he doubted that Loki would allow any attachments to get in the way of his dominion plan.

It was a few minutes before Austin replied, before she was able to do much more than breathe in and out while sobbing as well, but when she did speak, what she said made Erik grin, though it also caused him pain.

"I don't know what happened, dad. I just passed out, I think. And, - oh, dad, I need to get home, to make dinner," Austin told him, and though it was an endearing statement in a way, it also broke his heart.

What a tangled web he had put them all in, and all from his greed.

Even if he wanted to protect Austin, even if Loki did care about her, even if Austin cared for him, in turn – with the future that had been planned, with the dominion that was to take place, none of them would end up happy, and there was nothing he could do to change it.

* * *

><p>Loki's thoughts were pensive as he watched Austin carefully, noting the paleness in her pallor, inwardly praising himself for keeping from reaching out towards her, from using his magic to revive her a bit; in case she was still unaware of his identity, he did not wish to give it away quite yet, though he was fairly certain that she knew already, or was awfully close to discovery; it had been Selvig's idea to hide the truth from her, but so far, it had been much easier than revealing his real identity, much more rewarding, in a way, to watch her try and figure him out. From the time that he had arrived at the doctor's poor excuse for a home – late, because apparently Austin and Selvig had been detained at the headquarters of S.H.I.E.L.D. for questioning, due to Austin's sudden sickness – to now, watching her pour tea for them to drink after they had finished their (surprisingly good, for mortal food) meal, Loki had felt an almost foreign sense of worry over the woman—<p>

Almost foreign...because he had felt it before, a few times.

Asgardians did not become sick; it was not in their blood. But, more than once, Thor had been wounded in a glorious battle – a few times rather severely, though he had always healed, and gone straight back to being his rash self, picking any fight he could for the enjoyment of it, as was the norm in their culture. Once, however, Thor had been wounded due to a fault of Loki's, and had taken a few days, even with the aid of magic, to heal. Loki had sat by his brother's bedside in worry for him to wake, and never before could he remember feeling so utterly afraid—

Never before, until now.

Loki had questioned, slyly, the reasoning for Austin's sudden illness, but Selvig had not been as eager to provide his master with information as he normally was – he had instead been tending to Austin, who throughout Loki's visit had appeared to wane more every moment, so Loki was begrudged to forgive him...for the moment, anyway. He held a sneaking suspicion that her illness had to do with the tesseract, since Selvig was working closely with the object, and he assumed some humans may be sensitive to its presence, but he could not say for sure, and that aggravated him.

But, it did not overshadow the worry he felt for Austin.

Austin finished pouring the tea, handed him a mug, and then sat down across from him shakily, smiling a watery smile his way. Selvig sat at the end of the table he had miraculously pulled forth from the recesses of his rather pathetic home, watching their exchange, a cup of coffee in his hand, worry seeping forth from his every breath. "I'm sorry I'm...not fully functioning. I think I just need to sleep, or something," Austin told Loki in apology, her hands gripping the mug that contained her tea rather tightly, despite her state.

Truth be told, Loki was rather surprised she had wished to continue their dinner date (if it could be called such) at all, but at the same time, he was rather glad that she had, because seeing her like this, he was forced to confront the truth – or more of it.

Loki liked to run from himself, from his emotions, liked to tuck them away into a pocket inside of him, attempting to forget his faults and inhibitions – but lately, that pocket had begun to be broken down, like a wall that had gained a crack, and now he was slowly beginning to realize that he could not run from his emotions forever. He remained as dangerous as he always had – perhaps more so, since he had finally allowed himself to break outside of the shell that Odin had bestowed upon him – but at the same time, he had become a creature fueled by his sadness and anger and hatred, even though he kept a sharp mind and thorough reign on his schemes.

Everything was reaching a boiling point, just as he was becoming who he had always wished to be, in a sense, and if the last few hours, speaking with the hated Jane Foster, had taught him anything, it was that there was one thing he could not run from for very long...

_Austin_.

In everything he had planned, in everything he had schemed and put into place, he had never expected to become attached to the human woman, and he was beginning to realize just how strong this attachment was, and just what it might mean. It was not an attachment forged from tenuous interest, as he suspected Thor's attachment to Jane Foster was, but something else; Austin understood him in a way most didn't. But the question that was beginning to haunt him was: what should he do, concerning her?

He had not been lying when he'd told Jane Foster that he would like to whisk Austin away, to somewhere where she would not be harmed, where she would not be in reach of his enemies. He also had not been lying when he'd confessed, surprisingly and yet not surprisingly, that he would not harm Austin, no matter what contract was broken. But, hearing the words that Jane had said next, her last attempt at making a deal with him, and watching Austin now, appearing more frail and human than he had seen her, Loki was finding that the fear he had been running from had finally caught up with him.

His family – what he had thought of as family, those who had ultimately betrayed him, though he could not hate (some of) them even now – was gone; he was alone, a lonely fallen prince. The scheme that he currently had in place would work, and then he would take his rightful place, but still, things would never be as they once had been. And though now he had found someone who understood him to even some degree, whose company he genuinely enjoyed, he knew that it could not last forever; Jane had slapped him in the face, with words this time, with this truth—

Austin was mortal, and would remain mortal, and Loki was not.

Loki had thrown this awful fact back at Jane, because it was true for her and Thor, too, but it had not made him feel an ounce better to see the shock and sadness upon her face, because it did not erase the truth from his own life. Austin was mortal, and he was not, and no matter what he did, the time she would live, that he could spend with her, would never be enough.

He really should have killed her when he met her, should never have let her lay even a small claim upon his heart.

How stupid he was in his brokenness.

But, he was going to remedy his mistake, ensure that he made a clean break. He would not kill her, because soon enough she would die on her own, but he would ensure that she never wished to see him again, after which he would grant her wish. This was his bargain with Jane Foster: he would leave in the worst possible way. He had asked nothing in return, not yet, though Jane knew that if he were to demand a return, she would have to comply.

Soon, he would vanish from Austin's life forever, for his good as much as for hers, but for now...for now, he would be selfish; he was very good at this.

His mother might have told him that he was actually very kind, though he tried to hide it, but Loki knew the truth – he wasn't. Thinking of Frigga brought pain to his heart, but he pushed it aside as he continued to watch Austin, who stirred sugar and cream into her tea with a practiced rhythm, thinking of how he had never seen her drink tea before.

"Austin, I think perhaps you should go to bed now. I've need to speak to...Lee, anyway," Selvig spoke then, eyes shifting from Austin to Loki warily from the end of the table. He, like Austin, appeared worn – and also old, and also defeated; Loki secretly grinned at this, amused by how far the scientist had fallen.

Austin looked up at her father then, turning green eyes from her tea, and the quiet fierceness that lurked often in her gaze – something that Loki admired, if he were to be honest – appeared once again. "I'm fine for now, dad. I'd really rather drink my tea. Plus, I wanted to do some writing. Tony called me this afternoon – I guess he was told about the, erm, incident, and harassed me about my novel's progress," she said, turning her gaze from her father to smile at Loki once more, a secret smile.

Ah, yes, he recalled that he had asked to read her work. He would have to do so before he left for good. He was curious what she had written about him.

"That writing thing again, Austin? Really, I thought you'd given that up. It's a pointless venture, a waste of your time," Erik spoke once more from the end of the table, and once those words were uttered, there was an obvious shift in the atmosphere, as Austin stiffened, drawing in a harsh breath.

Loki had heard, of course, of Selvig's dislike for Austin's talent – because it wasn't what he would have wanted for her – but he had never seen her father state it so bluntly. His teeth clenched as he waited for Austin to say something, and he felt extremely proud of himself for not murdering the annoying mortal right there.

Memories threatened to resurface – memories of Odin's confession, of him finally, finally telling the truth about Loki's parentage – but Loki held them back, as he held back everything else.

How long would the wall continue to last?

In a jerky move, Austin had turned her gaze once more to her father, her body shaking, tears already beginning to stream down her face. "You know what, dad? I'm sorry – even though I'm not – that I can't be like Jane, or that I don't make life decisions that are what you would want for me. I'm sorry that you think so little of my passions and me. But why – _why_ can't you even pretend to be okay with it? Why can I never be good enough? Why do I have to pretend that _I'm_ okay with being put down? I'm just – I'm tired of it!" she shouted, before, now a mess of tears, she hastily stood and ran to the door of Selvig's tiny home, slamming it shut behind her as she disappeared inside.

Her dam had broken—

And Loki felt his break then, too, though he did not show it in the same way.

He stared at the spot Austin had recently occupied as the wind blew, and the stars shone, and the past came back to haunt him with a vengeance.

He could see it, every detail and every movement, every expression that Odin made as Loki questioned him. The aftermath of Austin's rage floated through the air around him as Selvig yelled her name, sounding sorry, though that was not enough, but what he saw was not the spot Austin had vacated, but Odin and the chamber they had been in that day, when the lie that had followed him his entire life was finally brought to light.

_What am I, then? Tell me!_

He had cried, though he had known the truth; he had known it from the second he had seen the blue appear across his skin on Jotunheim, since he had picked the casket up, since fear had taken root more than it ever had before.

_You are my son. _

Odin had replied, but upon his face Loki had seen – and could see, even now – the falsity, the condemnation, the lie. Odin had never cared, and it had been obvious then, in those ugly, false words.

Loki had only been there for convenience, only there as a means to an end; Odin had not wanted him as a son, only as a game piece.

In much the same way, Erik appeared to never have wanted Austin as a daughter, but only as someone to carry on his scientific legacy.

Loki's blood boiled as Selvig stood, and suddenly he felt very, very cold, as if all of the anger and rage within him had frozen him, rather than heated the fires of revenge; so, he was a Jotun after all, though his skin did not change in that moment. Before Selvig could take two steps, Loki was in front of him, feeling a familiar, dangerous smirk alight on his lips.

"You, good doctor, I believe have done quiet enough for tonight," he said, cocking his head slightly, his tone dark and murderous, despite the smirk on his face. "Did you really believe that your faults would not come to haunt you, to make themselves known? You really are such a failure, especially as a father, and now everything dear to you has suffered from your greed," he continued, feeling rather pleased with himself.

Oh, how he wished that he could say such things to Odin – not that the Allfather would listen, or be moved. Erik Selvig was different, however; he was a faulted man, a fragile man, a pathetic man.

Loki hated him now more than before, perhaps more than he hated Jane Foster – though he admired Jane, in a way, because she was strong where Erik was not.

Erik Selvig stumbled back and fell on his backside in the desert sand, tears in his eyes. "Don't you think I know that?" he asked, voice half strangled. "Don't you think I know how I've failed Austin – I led her to you, for Christ's sake! I've made far too many mistakes, and I hate myself for it. But I – I didn't know she felt that way," he said, the last bit a near whisper, and Loki sneered down at him.

"You did not know? Oh, do not patronize me with such a feeble lie," the god spoke, his opinion of the mortal before him dropping every second. "You knew; do not deny it. And now I will leave you with your own self-hatred. It is far more condemning than I could ever be," he said, before turning on his heel, and striding towards the pathetic excuse for a home's door.

He was going to be selfish again – or perhaps he was going to be kind. Loki did not know the difference between the two anymore, sometimes, because at this point, he only did as he wished to do, for his own good...

Or perhaps that was not completely true, because the one thing in his mind now was: Austin needed him.

A muffled cry came from Selvig, a plea that Loki barely paid attention to. "Don't hurt her," he said, but made no move to stop his master from entering his abode; perhaps he fully, truly had given up now.

It was for the better.

Finally.

But, Selvig was stupid – he had not figured out, as Jane had, that Loki would do no such thing, not to Austin.

Loki's blood continued to boil, though he felt as cold as ice, as he opened the door and shut it closed, strangely quietly, behind him...but all of that rage and chill and ugliness melted away once he saw Austin.

The last time that Loki himself had cried had been the day that he had fought Thor, that he had dangled off of the bridge, on the edge of falling into the universe, that he had barred his heart to Odin, only to have it crushed. But, he had cried a few times before, as a child, and he recalled his mother pulling him into her arms to comfort him, as all good mothers did.

Austin appeared as a young child now, curled into a ball and sobbing, leaning against the wall by the meager kitchen, fragile and frail more than before, yet strangely strong in a way. She didn't appear to notice him walk in, entirely entangled in her own misery, but that did not stop him from acting as Frigga had all those years ago. Seeing sadness strangely close to his, he could not ignore the cry for help, and walked over, kneeling down to wrap his arms about the shaking mortal, to comfort one of the only thing that he cared about, perhaps against his better judgment.

She stiffened at first, realizing that he was there, but then she relaxed, letting her tears loose, as he no longer could. He stroked her hair repeatedly, though he did not say anything, as she cried – cried for the both of them, for things that had been, and things that were still yet to come.

The end was a depressing thing, but for now, they had each other, and shared misery.

Loki did not know how long it was that Austin cried. It could have been moments, hours, days; time did not exist then, did not matter. But eventually, he realized that she was no longer awake, was gently slumped against him and asleep, and then realized that the end was closer than ever.

Why was it that everything he never wished to end always did?

Feeling strangely resigned, strangely stable though heartbroken, Loki lifted the smallish woman into his arms and began to carry her towards her bed, realizing that sunlight was only hours away, that goodbye was close at hand. There was still so much to do, and he could not afford to wallow in his emotions any longer...or could he?

He would have to build another wall now, one stronger and more resilient than the last – not for the betterment of his plans or to hide, but for _his_ betterment. He would have to use his emotions as weapons now, instead of allowing them to defeat him.

Somewhere in between the kitchen space and the bedroom, Austin spoke sleepily, asking him the fateful question: "Lee, are you actually Loki?"

He stiffened immediately, a thousand denials coming to mind, though it would be pointless to deny it now, because she would discover it eventually, anyway – he wanted to 'rule' Midgard, after all. But as he looked down at her, and saw that she was obviously less than half awake, and would by all probability not remember a word he said, he answered, with finality: "Yes, Austin, yes I am."

"I knew it," he did not expect an answer, so when he received it, continuing on his journey, entering her bedroom he was surprised. What surprised him even more, however, was what she uttered when he placed her upon her bed, the covers already pulled back (she was not obsessed with neatness, obviously), her hand tangled in his shirt, not letting him go. "I love you, Loki."

A pause. A breath. A moment to let the words sink in.

He had heard that before, but it did not feel as though he had heard it in a long time. If he remembered correctly, his mother had been the last one to say it to him, but sometime in the past Thor had said it, too, when them being brothers had mattered.

Loki knew that somewhere, sometime, someone had loved him, but he had never felt truly loved.

He looked down at Austin, still attached to him, and said, so quiet that he could hardly hear himself: "Yes, I know, but I do not deserve it."

He hated how much he hated himself, and he hated how selfish he was – and yet, he didn't.

Perhaps that was the thing about being Loki: he could hate what he was, but he did not know how to be anything else, and at the same time, he could not imagine being anything else. One day, he hoped he would come to accept himself, to leave all of his pain behind, but that day felt so very far away, especially at this time.

Loki sighed, resigning himself to what was to come, and decided that, so long as Austin wanted him there (even asleep, she wouldn't let him go, not yet – he would make her want to let him go, soon), he would stay.

"Oh, mortal, what have you done to me? Alright, move over," Loki said, gaining his humor back as he picked Austin up once more, and scooted her over upon the bed, so that he could half sit and half lay next to her; she adjusted almost immediately in her sleep so that she was directly next to him, snuggling, and his hand once again found her hair, stroking it.

Some people might have found the simple silence that followed far too drudging, but for Loki, he hoped that the dawn would not come quickly—

For, with the dawn, everything would change.

* * *

><p><strong>Hello, everyone! I'm sorry this took a bit to update. NaNoWriMo ate my November, and the holidays have been quite insane. I was hoping to have this up for Christmas, but New Years is right around the corner, too! Happy late Christmas, everyone. :)<strong>

**Before the year ends, I really want to say thank you for sticking with this story and with me. This has been a really, really rough year for me, both business-wise and personally, and your comments and enthusiasm over this story have been lifting. I've had Depression for years now, but it hit me hard this year, and there were many very, very low points; it's been a tough journey moving forward and staying strong, but I'm doing it, and things are getting better slowly. I hope this story has been fun, or even uplifting for you, and I'm glad that I've been able to continue working on it. **

**A Happy New Year to you! Here's to next year, when I finally finish this story! It's nearing the end now, and (I hope) you will like it. **

**Best, **

**Cross~**


	9. Chapter 9: Magic Words

**The Science of Mystery**

_Chapter Nine: Magic Words_

The night before everything changed was long for everyone...

Jane Foster sat awake in her hospital bed, thoughts swirling as she stared up at the ceiling, Loki's hateful words refusing to leave her, though she attempted to banish them from her mind:

"_What do you believe will come of it, truly? You said so yourself – a mortal and an immortal cannot live together happily, for one will be left alone after such a short time. If the pursuit of Austin is pointless, then isn't your pursuit of Thor the same?" _

She hated him.

She hated him so, so much for saying the things that she had known, but had been trying to run from. She wanted to slap him again, to punch him, to tear screams from him until he begged for mercy, and she killed him, just as he had threatened to do to her if she did not comply, did not accept his oh so "generous" deals, but she knew that it would all be in vain, would all be pointless—

Hating Loki was pointless, because as much as she hated him, she felt pity for him above all else.

Perhaps she shouldn't have. Perhaps there should have been no pity in her for the tricky, awful creature that had no place in the universe – or so he thought – who was lost, but she did. She pitied him.

And, due to the last deal they had made, when she had uttered those horrific words about mortals – true for her and Thor, too – she had come to _respect_ Loki, as well...and maybe that was even worse than pitying him, or hating him.

Loki was going to cut all ties. She had seen it in his eyes, had looked past his fancy words and assurances; it was the truth. He was going to do what Jane could not, though he would be miserable for it in the end.

And maybe she hated herself then, too, even more than before, even more than she hated Loki – because if someone as awful as Loki could do what was best for the person they cared about, then why couldn't Jane?

* * *

><p>Erik Selvig never did enter his home that night. Instead he spent it in the cold, in the wind, in the desert sand looking up at the clear sky above, and wondering—<p>

_Why_?

Why had all of this happened? Why had he allowed it to happen? Why had fate been so cruel as to send Thor to their world in the first place, triggering all of this? Why couldn't life have continued forward as it had been, humans making small leaps, getting closer to the stars, but never close enough? The Earth had become too small a place since technology had boomed, but now the universe itself was becoming too small, too dangerous.

_Why_?

Why hadn't he listened better? Why hadn't he done anything? Loki was right, he had known how Austin felt, and yet it never had seemed to matter, not enough to try and change anything. He had continued to think of her dreams as silly, things she would grow out of, childish fantasies, and in his absence and write-offs...Austin had grown up. She was no longer a child, and what kind of world had he built for her to live in?

A world filled with a father who didn't care, who wasn't around, who asked too much. A world where her dreams meant nothing. A world where dangerous beings from other planets swooped in, and Erik helped them destroy everything that those he cared for held dear, that he had once held dear before the greed for recognition had seized his mind.

What kind of world had he created for his daughter, all in the pursuit of science – all in the pursuit of fame and glory?

The truth was: he had not created a world for his daughter—

He had instead helped to tear the world apart.

* * *

><p>Tony Stark sat staring at his newest plans without really seeing them, hardly blinking, hardly moving, filled with concentration, though not entirely on what he was working on completing. In the background, JARVIS said something, but was not heard by the working scientist.<p>

Too much was going through Tony's mind now, most of it exciting, though as always, there were dark thoughts. He couldn't seem to shake these dark thoughts, not since his kidnap and near death, not since Iron-Man. He kept up his snarky façade, and to be quite honest most of it wasn't fake, but he hardly ever let anyone see what lurked beneath: a strange, desperate kind of fear that one day, he wouldn't be able to fix everything.

His suits kept getting better, and he had full pride in his abilities, but would his ingenuity always hold the same power it did now? Would there come a day, some day soon, where there would appear an enemy he could not defeat?

"Stupid worries. Waste of time," Tony told himself, shrugging, letting it go, and went back to work.

Such was life: nothing was guaranteed.

* * *

><p>Far, far from Earth, another had a sleepless night, and wandered from the palace to consult one whose gaze was farther reaching.<p>

"Heimdall," Thor greeted kindly, coming to stand beside the guardian on the edge of the still broken Bifrost; it was being repaired, but was not whole as of yet. "I have not visited you for days, my friend. Father has become strangely...distant," he said, looking down at infinite space, eyebrows blond furrowing, before he shook his head slightly, and changed the subject, saying: "How fares Jane?"

He would rather not think about how odd his father was acting for the moment, for Thor did not understand. Odin had been, in the past few days, brooding and stern, more than was usual, and it was beginning to bother not only Thor, but his mother Frigga. Something was amiss, but the All-Father did not seem to think that it should be brought to their attention quite yet, and that in itself was troublesome. Thor tried to allow the All-Father the respect he deserved, especially with decisions, but lately...he found himself looking at his father's decisions quite differently, even beginning to disagree with them to varying degrees.

It was terrifying, in a way, and Thor didn't like feeling afraid—

And so he wished to turn his thoughts from it, if only for the moment. Change hung in the air, gloomy and choking, and he felt that, whatever was to happen, it would happen soon; it was best to have a moment's peace beforehand, especially with all that had taken place in his life lately.

But Heimdall did not answer for a moment, his golden eyes gazing in their way at the universe, and this caused Thor to frown in worry.

Perhaps whatever was to come, it was coming faster than he had predicted. Thor felt almost tired, thinking that something large may occur. Since Loki's death, not even the most glorious of battles had lifted his spirits, nor the company of friends; nothing, it seemed, could replace his brother, and he doubted that the hole Loki had left when he'd gone would ever be mended. His heart grieved still, continuously.

It was another moment before Heimdall spoke, and Thor waited with impatient, bated breath, before the guardian at last said: "I cannot see her, and when I turn my gaze towards your other allies on Midgard, such as the man named Selvig, I cannot see them, either. There is something clouding my vision, something...familiar," Heimdall allowed, the heavy silence that followed speaking for itself.

Then, in that moment, Thor knew.

Somehow, Thor _knew_.

"Loki."

It was his brother.

_Loki was alive!_

* * *

><p>Austin's eyes fluttered open sleepily, and she blinked back dreams filled with sadness and possibility, shifting to sit up upon the bed, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion. As she looked down, eyes trailing over the comforter covering her, she had the distinct feeling that something was wrong, that something was...<em>missing<em>, but no matter how hard she tried to discern what it was, her mind remained foggy, on the edge of sleep, providing no answers.

She couldn't remember having awoken in the middle of the night, as she normally did, even if only briefly, and that was odd. And now that she was awake, she felt far too warm...or perhaps too cold in the strangest of ways.

Taking in a deep breath, Austin pursed her lips, shaking her head to attempt to clear it – and then suddenly it all came rushing back: her father, the fight, Lee being there to comfort her when no one else could seem to.

As was usual, things appeared brighter now that it was a new day, as she turned her gaze towards the window, but Austin knew that brightness alone could not banish the terrible things that had been said, and not said, the hurts that lurked deep within her heart.

She wondered briefly what had become of Lee once she had cried herself to sleep, but supposed that he had carried her to bed, tucked her in, and left; she didn't remember anything after crying, though faint images from her dream haunted her waking mind, one being what she assumed was Lee, wearing a shocked expression. She slowly stood to her feet, groaning, frowning at her wrinkled clothes, left over from the day before, and set her feet upon the bedraggled carpet beneath. Knowing that she would have to make a decision as to what to do from here on out, after she had all but blown up the night before, Austin found a new set of clothes, and made her way to the overly small bathroom for a shower, to scrub off the terrible events of the day before, running over the possibilities in her mind, what she could do or should do.

In her heart, she knew what she would do from the beginning, but the knowledge didn't reach her mind immediately.

The tiny trailer was quiet, and so she assumed that she was the only one there; her father appeared to be nowhere in sight, not that this was surprising. Most probably, he had gone in to work already, spending his time with his science, his real love, but surely he hadn't forgotten her words from the night before – he had appeared quite upset; at least he still cared, which she knew in her heart, even if she didn't feel it. Austin knew that she didn't want to try going to his work again (her previous attempt had ended in disaster), and she didn't really want to wait for him to get home, and she also didn't want to talk to him over the phone, and so—

Austin decided, as she stood beneath the raining water of the shower, that she would be going home, her heart telling her mind.

Austin loved her father, she really did, but she was beginning to realize just how broken their relationship was, and no matter how much she wanted, anything that was broken could not be fixed overnight. They had made progress – she had finally spoken to him truthfully, telling him (albeit angrily) how belittled and unappreciated she felt – but now that the truth had been said, Austin really wasn't sure whether or not any more could be done; she needed time to think, and perhaps her father did, as well.

She felt the same way concerning Lee, too, or was beginning to. She cared about him, but...there was still something about him that boggled her, and perhaps she was getting a bit too attached to him too quickly. She felt that some time to think would be good – besides, Lee would surely be working soon; when was he meant to join her father again? She didn't want to cause friction or complications for him.

As Austin finished her shower, changed, and then stared into the mirror of the small bathroom, she was hit with a sudden force that screamed uncertainty.

So much had happened, and all in a few days. The person staring back at her was no longer the same girl who had been there upon her arrival in New Mexico, or even the same girl who had watched her from the glass the morning previous – moreover, the person staring back was no longer a girl, but a woman. Something had changed, especially over the last day, but what, Austin wasn't entirely sure; she felt as though she were missing pieces, far too many pieces. She needed time to think, away from the craziness that was her father's life, town, existence. If she was to become anything like she wanted to be, she needed to be able to examine her own life, before everything became overly complicated.

When had everything become so complicated?

Another sigh left Austin as she exited the bathroom, and made her way to the barely-there kitchen to find something to eat, her stomach protesting in wake of a night of tears and anger. She was dressed rather plainly today, rather comfortably, hair pulled back into a bun, as she had not worn it in quite some time, but felt more herself than she had in a while; plus, comfort was important on a long plane ride, and she would be packing everything else up shortly after grabbing food; she wanted to be home by that evening, or the next morning, if possible; she missed home, oddly enough, even missed Tony something fierce and awful.

Quickly perusing the contents of the kitchen, Austin almost bypassed the note that lingered on the tiny table around which she had sat with her father and Lee – where her father had nursed coffee, where she had felt so different than she did now. But her eye caught sight of the paper, and she turned, nearly dropping a bottle of juice, and picked it up.

Her father's handwriting greeted her from the paper, and as she read his words, Austin began to tear up, and some of the pieces that had been missing appeared, and began to fit into the puzzle; the puzzle inside of her began to be pieced together, as well, though she didn't consciously recognize it at the time.

The letter read:

_My dearest Austin, _

_I don't believe that any number of apologies could ever make up for how I've treated you, and I won't pretend that they can. I'm an awful father, I realize that, but I want you to understand that I know my faults. _

_I can't fix everything; I wouldn't even try. It's true that I love science more than people, but that's just who I am. It's also true I tried to make you into someone like Jane – I felt so awful for her after her father died, and she's always been easy to relate to – and it's also true that I knew it was wrong. It's true that I'm selfish and sometimes stupid, but it's also true that I love you. I'm sorry I haven't been able to make that as apparent as I should have. _

_I've come to realize that you're a writer, just like I'm a scientist, and I think that one day I might be able to accept this. _

_Despite everything, I'm glad that you came to visit. Unfortunately, there just isn't any room in my life right now for complications or familial relationships; I'm being honest. But I hope one day, we can work to fix our relationship. _

_Even if we can't, I really want you to know that I still love you, Austin. _

_Da_

By the time that she had read the letter twice, there were tears streaming down Austin's cheeks, and she had to sit down somewhere in between readings. The contents of the letter were not, of course, what she had wanted to read, to hear her father figuratively say, but though they were painful, the pain was a sort of sweet pain that she appreciated, because—

He was being honest with her. There were no lies in his words, no half-truths, no glossy "we can fix this", and that was why they made her as happy as they made her sad. He could have said that he was sorry and took it all back, that he would try better, that they could be a family again, but he hadn't; it wouldn't have been the truth. He loved her enough to tell her that he wasn't perfect, and to tell her the truth even though it was ugly, and that meant that he really loved her.

It wasn't what she wanted, but in the same token, Austin knew she wouldn't truly want it any other way.

Sometimes love was tough, and sometimes love was ugly—

And sometimes, love meant letting someone go.

And in wake of that, Austin felt more confident of her decision to leave.

Hopefully the future would bring them back together again, or for the first time, but if not, then Austin knew that her father truly did love her, despite his own desires for a daughter more like Jane, and she knew that she had to let him know that she loved him, too, despite everything.

Her father obviously knew she would leave that day, and so she would bequeath him a note, just as he had her, leaving all of her love with it.

Just before Austin shut the trailer door for the last time behind her, a few hours later, her suitcase in hand, her things packed, ready to return the Jeep she had rented, having found a flight that would leave in four hours, she found a piece of paper with which to leave her own note, tucking her father's precious words into her suitcase to keep with her always, and wrote the only thing that she could write, the only thing that would convey how she felt fully, before she began a new road in life:

_Dad, _

_P.S.: This is Austin._

_And I still love you. _

* * *

><p>Loki watched silently as Austin vacated the pathetic trailer, lugging her suitcase somewhat clumsily into the vehicle, the trickster unseen and unheard, and though Austin appeared to possess a strangely strong sixth sense (as the humans called it), he went unfelt, as well. He had assumed that she would leave after the events of the night before, just as he knew Selvig had, and though he was still lamenting over his decision to let her go, it truthfully made his plan of betrayal all the easier.<p>

All he had to do now was wait – wait until the last moment, when he could send her off with the knowledge that she never wanted to see him again, that he was only attempting to use her to destroy her father's life, goading her into breaking his heart with her confession, so that he could usurp Selvig and take over his position (this was the lie he was baking, still perfecting).

But for now, Loki would watch her, as she said her last goodbyes, for he had already ascertained where she would go next. He wasn't entirely able to let go – and consequently, to move forward – quite yet; this unexpected turn of events in his life was fleeting but strangely freeing, and he knew that it would never come again, and so, painful or not, as he was loath to admit to himself, he was savoring it.

As the Jeep pulled away from the dilapidated trailer, Loki transported himself into the interior of the ugly space, scowling once more at Selvig's abode, allowing memories of the night before, and the last few days, to fill his mind – particularly of the night before, where he had allowed himself to be vulnerable, though no one saw it, for the first time since he could recall. How odd, that things could change oh so quickly. It must have been dizzying for humans, to live in a world that constantly morphed into something else; life was not quite so fast-paced on Asgard, but then again, what he had thought of as his people lived far longer than the mortals did, and thus had no need to live at such acceleration.

A piece of paper, lingering on the table in the pathetic excuse for an eating space, caught Loki's attention just as he thought of disappearing from the space, somewhat overwhelmed with the bittersweet memories, and another breath found him staring down at the paper curiously, finding it to be a note.

Austin had left it, obviously, and it proclaimed her love for her father, despite everything. If mortals could sense magic like Loki could, perhaps Selvig would have seen just how potent those written words were, how filled with magic of their own.

Loki reached out towards the note, thought of destroying it, just to spite the good doctor, but before his fingers could touch the paper, his hand steadied as he stared anew at those words, written in Austin's curling hand, as if seeing them for the first time.

She had told him she loved him, too, though certainly she didn't remember having said it, being nowhere near awake.

If he had been able to leave a note for his family before his "death" – for Thor, and his mother, and even Odin – what would it have said?

There was no longer any love in Loki's heart for the All-Father, though there was the pestering desire to prove himself – but what about Thor, and Frigga? What would his letter have conveyed to the one who was once his brother, and the lady who was once his mother?

That was not a question Loki wished to answer, though he knew what the answer was...but as he vanished from the trailer, Austin's letter remained on the table, wholly unscathed.

* * *

><p><strong>Hello, everyone! Thank you for reading. I hope you liked it; I'm a bit nervous about this one, because transitions are always difficult to pen. I have some (hopefully exciting) announcements! <strong>

**First off, there is one more chapter (really, only one!). I always end up making things longer than they need to be, so I decided to split the last chapter in two. This makes my OCD happy, because now there are ten chapters for this story in all, because my OCD likes things to be even. I can't say when the next chapter will be uploaded, and the main reason for that is- **

**I have decided to write at least a sequel to this story (we shall see after that), but I wanted to wait until the first chapter for it is done, before I add the last chapter for this story, so I can upload them at the same time. The sequel will be called _"The Mystery Of Mischief"_, and will take place during The Avengers. A warning: updates will be slow, probably a few months in between, due to my schedule, but there's really nothing I can do about that. **

**On another note, again, if you like my fanfic, please check out my original fiction! I'd really love your comments/support. You can get my books in e-book (working on paper), and quite a few of my stories are up on Wattpad to read free if you want to peruse first (original drafts, but hey). Also, I've added a new page to my website, to show fans the behind the scenes of one of my upcoming stories, a Peter Pan sequel. Links to my site are on my profile page. **

**Anyway, until next time, thank you again for reading, reviewing, adding this story to favorites, and being so supportive. I'm sorry it's taken so long, but thank you, really, for sticking with it, and me. It means a lot. **

**Best wishes,**

**Cross~**


	10. Chapter 10: Ending Illusion

**The Science of Mystery**

_Chapter Ten: Ending Illusion_

Austin stared at the wooden door before her, standing closed, only waiting to be opened with a push of the hand. She had, perhaps ten minutes ago, spoken with the nurse down the hallway, obviously stalling for time, getting the green light so far as entrance; the door was shut at the patient's request, not for any medical reasons. Her heart stopped, beating quickly in her chest as she blinked, her legs shaking slightly, wondering what on Earth she would say upon entrance.

It was nervousness that kept her standing there, rooted outside Jane's door, not fear nor anger – though there was a bit of sadness, too. The door before her was almost symbolic in its appearance, for it told her silently that yes, one journey was close to ending; one door in her life (or many, if she wished to be honest) was closing, hopefully leading to another open one.

Austin had since managed to wipe all of her tears over her father away, succeeding in making her appearance calm and composed, though she felt anything but on the inside. It wasn't that she regretted her decision, thinking that perhaps she should stay instead, for she was not – she was confident in her decision, and knew in her heart that it was the correct one – it was simply that goodbyes had never been easy for her, and she was aware of the fact that _these_ goodbyes, especially, would take some time to recover from; the scars that were forming on her heart would never fade completely, but the wounds would heal.

Austin had come to her decision that morning, but she had taken the time once she'd arrived at the hospital, sitting in the Jeep that she would return to soon after, to fully decide on her next course of action. Truth be told, she was not ready to return to her mother's home as of yet, for she felt that if she did, she would be pronouncing herself, in some way, a failure; she needed more time to herself, more time to do things on her own, without her mother's aid, to truly discover, for herself, how to shape her life. But she knew that she couldn't do it alone, and that was the difficult part – declaring independence while still relying on someone. So, after some deliberation, Austin had turned to her phone, taking a deep breath, and had quickly accessed her number list, choosing one of the numbers most often called—

"I'll admit, I was expecting to hear from you sooner. Had enough fun at your father's house – if it can even be called that. You know, I looked it up via satellite, and it could use some remodeling. I have some tips and tricks...or we could just demolish it, you know, build from the ground up – or leave it as rubble," the voice of Tony Stark answered on the second ring, somewhat tame compared to normal, as if he could somehow sense her unease.

Tony was not known for being considerate, even to those closest to him, but if there were anyone he could show kindness towards somewhat easily, it was Austin; Pepper was second, though the two had a much different dynamic.

Austin let out a watery laugh, at that point the remains of tears still clinging to her cheeks. "Thanks for the offer, Tony, but that sounds like far too much work," she joked, though a small part of her wished to take him up on his offer (hey, she was only human). "I'm actually calling about something else..." she began, feeling a small bit nervous, before: "You know when you told me if I needed a room, I could—"

Tony cut her off, naturally. "You want to bunk at my place to escape your frankly terrifying mother, who is sure to be angry when she discovers that your father has – and not surprisingly – pushed you away, all while working to discover why you've always wanted to become a fairy princess...I mean, writer. Are they really that different?" he answered before Austin could continue, this time earning a real laugh from her, though she was also shocked.

He knew her too well, and perhaps that should terrify her, but it didn't. Instead, it made her feel comfort, even in the face of change, even as dread filled her stomach at the thought of saying goodbye to Jane...and to Lee.

Austin was speechless for a moment, before she found her voice once more. "Um...yes. You're right, actually, minus the fairy princess bit. Would you mind terribly, Tony? I promise I won't be a pest," she told him, small smile lighting up her face as relief flooded through her.

"Of course you'll be a pest – I would be insulted if you weren't. You should leave dishes lying around, make messes, and we can get drunk together, that way Pepper can complain, because you know how much I love to hear it. Besides, I haven't had a good hangover in a while," Tony replied with a chuckle, before suddenly he paused, and then said somewhat seriously, sounding uncomfortable: "But, seriously, come over. You know the address. Now, what do you like in your room? Pink? Frills?" the awkward seriousness did not last long, and soon Tony was back to harassment, though Austin wasn't surprised.

Her friend seemed to be in better touch with his feelings (not to mention the feelings of others) now that Pepper had gotten ahold of him, now that he had finally learned some real responsibility, but Tony still couldn't manage to be overly touchy-feely or honest, even. Austin supposed this may never change, but that was alright; his heart was in the right place.

Austin, in that moment, could not express what she felt, either, so all she said was: "Thank you, Tony. And no pink – maybe green," before the conversation ended, and she took a deep breath, before exiting the Jeep and heading into the hospital.

Standing in front of Jane's room now, that conversation seemed unendingly easy, compared to the conversation she was about to have. Despite everything, there was still resentment lurking in Austin's heart towards Jane, though it had decreased dramatically, and she was willing, just like with her father, to work to make amends in whatever fashion Jane would allow.

Whatever the outcome may be Austin wanted to know that she had left every relationship she had in the little New Mexico town in the best possible condition she could before she began to render her life anew.

It was time – for many things; time to move on.

Knowing that visiting Jane would be far easier than saying goodbye to Lee, Austin took a deep breath, and pushed the door to Jane's room open, a small smile alighting on her lips as she poked her head into the sterile space.

The curtains that had once been pulled over the window were lingering open, the sunshine outside pouring into the room, casting a cheery disposition over Jane's bed sheets. Jane herself was staring up at the television situated on the wall opposite the head of her bed, appearing bored though looking much healthier than she had the last time Austin had seen her. It was as if some weight had been lifted from Jane's shoulders, as if some of her worry had disappeared, though there hung about her an air of uncertainty.

At the sound of the door opening, Jane turned her head, appearing a bit bewildered, no doubt thinking that it was a nurse, come to give her medication, run a test, or some other such awful medical practice, but her eyes lit up when she saw Austin – lit up, and then dimmed, as a sad smile graced her lips, a contrast to the cheery sunshine lighting up the room.

"Austin," she said, her voice soft as Austin tread lightly, crossing to sit at Jane's bedside, not losing her own smile, though it did dim a bit at Jane's reaction. "It's so good to see you. Is your father here, or – or your friend?" she asked, casting now-weary eyes to the doorway Austin had just entered through.

Biting her lip slightly, Austin shook her head, before she told Jane: "No, it's just me. I'm actually here to say goodbye. I've decided to leave, and allow dad to get back to his work undistracted," she admitted, pausing after, waiting for Jane to reply.

Jane's eyes lingered upon the doorway, as if waiting for something invisible to appear, before she abruptly looked over at Austin, the worry leaving her eyes as her smile became more realistic, though there was now an even deeper tinge of sadness.

"You're leaving?" Jane asked, though she did not sound entirely surprised. "Are you heading back to your mother's?" she inquired.

Austin shook her head again, shooting Jane a nervous look this time. "No, I'm actually going to stay with Tony – uh, Tony Stark, that is. I just...need some time to figure everything out. It seems like so much has changed. I still have to call my mother, and tell her I'll be away longer," she admitted, cringing slightly at the confession – she was not looking forward to her mother's no doubt angry reply. "My flight is in a few hours, but I wanted to say goodbye to you first, Jane, and apologize."

"Apologize? For what?" Jane asked incredulously, though again, it appeared as though she was aware of what Austin would say – or, at least the topic.

Austin wondered mildly if her father had mentioned Austin's anger to Jane; perhaps her father had come to see Jane that morning before making his way to work? Or perhaps Lee had, though the latter could not have, since he had never been to see Jane without Austin, at least so far as she was aware of.

As Austin thought this, an idea – a dangerous, magical, impossible idea – hung at the edge of her mind, begging to be entertained, but before the thought could be grasped it flitted away, as if she were not allowed to remember it...not yet.

Austin took a deep breath before pressing on, telling Jane the truth, being as honest as she knew how, staring down at her hands, which were clasped in her lap: "Jane, I don't know if you've noticed, but I've been angry with you for quite some time. I – I thought, when we were younger, that my father liked you better, that he wished you were his daughter instead, and that he wanted to replace me with you. I've always felt like he was trying to make me into you, instead of allowing me to be myself; he's never been able to appreciate me for who I am, and he's always wished for me to abandon my dreams, and become a scientist, too, like you, like him. I was angry for a long time, but then...I realized that it was wrong of me to be angry with you, or with my father," she admitted, before looking back up at Jane, seeing that the older woman was beginning to cry.

The sight of tears alarmed Austin, but she held onto her courage, and pressed further forward, not wishing to allow her opportunity to be wasted, nor for the pain to endure any longer.

She had spent so, _so_ many years hiding her feelings, and though it was partially her father's fault for not acknowledging them when they were obvious, it was also her fault for never bringing them into the light, never speaking of them. Even if her father never accepted her, and Jane shunned her, Austin wanted to know that she was being true to herself, simply by saying the words that she had kept hidden for so long.

And so she continued, with growing insistence, before she could lose the words breaking forth from her heart: "I spent all of this time trying to please my father, being upset at you, and not taking any responsibility for my own actions! I remained silent, and then I expected everyone else to fix my problems for me – to change their ways, without me changing mine. I can't help what other people think, or do, or how they act, but I can change how I act, how true to myself I am, and how I react to others, even when they aren't the kindest, or especially when they don't realize I'm upset. So I apologize, Jane. I want us to return to being friends," Austin finished, the breath leaving her, her heart beating so loudly that she could hear the sound ringing in her ears.

She had said her piece, and had spoken the truth – for once. If Jane was upset, or shunned her, then there was nothing more she could do. The future of their relationship was all on Jane now, and Austin was determined to leave it there, to take control of her own life.

There was nothing else she could do, nothing else she _would_ do. It was all up to Jane now.

She only hoped that Jane wanted the same thing that she did: a new beginning.

"Oh, Austin, you don't need to apologize," Jane said then, the tears increasing, and from the look on her face Austin could see that Jane did, indeed, want the same thing she did, a new beginning. Her heart lightened at the thought, and tears slipped from her eyes, as well – only they were happy tears, lighthearted, as if all of the pain inside of her concerning Jane was being released from those tears. "I'm the one who should be sorry," Jane continued, sitting up a bit, reaching out to take Austin's hand in her own, a sisterly gesture. "I knew how upset you were, and I never said anything. I just ignored it, and that was wrong of me. I never helped you, never tried to speak to your father, all while I told myself that I was doing what was best for you in not mentioning it. I thought I was protecting you, but really...really, I was just hurting you, instead," she bit back a sob, and wiped tears from her cheeks with the back of her free hand.

"Austin, there's so much that I wish I could tell you, that I wish you could know. This world, our lives, they're so much bigger than you know, but—" Jane looked towards the doorway once more, pausing as if in nervousness, again looking for something that wasn't there, before she abruptly leaned in towards Austin, her voice deathly serious, though still tinged with sadness and grief. "Austin, just promise me one thing: whatever you decide, and wherever you go – whatever happens – just remember to be true to yourself. You were right when you said that you should do just that. You might not know it or see it, but being you has the power to change things. It already_ has_ changed things," Jane told her, a secret sparkle in her brown eyes that looked desperately like hope.

Austin was once again baffled by something that seemed to be just on the edge of her consciousness, just on the edge of her understanding, but somehow still so far away. She didn't understand what Jane was getting at, was trying to tell her, just as she hadn't understood the silent warnings her father had tried to give, but she determined to heed Jane's advice all the same.

Feeling as if her heart were tugging upon her, telling her that it was time to go, that there was somewhere she needed to be, Austin smiled at Jane and gently pulled her hand from her friend's grasp, telling her: "Thank you, thank you so much. I won't forget that Jane. But now..."

"You need to go," Jane told her, not unkindly, somehow understanding just as Austin did.

Austin allowed one last tear to fall before wiping it away, feeling as if something had just broken, as if another door had closed. She had let go of something important, and yet at the same time, she was still holding onto Jane – holding onto her as a friend, as a sister. Their relationship wasn't over, as she had feared, but was actually just beginning.

Austin stood, began to turn on her heel – and then turned back abruptly, bending down to hug Jane tightly. "I love you, Jane. I really do. Thank you," she said, shaking, and feeling as though she couldn't breathe.

Jane hugged her back, and something else felt as though it broke, fell to pieces, as whatever secret lingered at the back of Austin's mind grew even closer, became even more daunting. It scared her, this feeling, and she wondered if this was how everyone felt before they finally were able to move on.

"Go. You know he's waiting for you," Jane whispered then, and once more Austin found herself confused, pulling back as her eyebrows knit.

Who was waiting for her? What did Jane mean?

Austin offered Jane one last smile before she finally gathered the courage to leave, stepping out of the hospital room with an equally heavy and light heart – a heart that was still feeling that tug, was being pulled somewhere. She entered the elevator and went down to the lobby, drawing the Jeep keys from her pocket, ready to return the vehicle before she found Lee, and said goodbye to him, too.

But she needn't have worried. As she exited the hospital she could see Lee leaning against said Jeep, waiting for her. She didn't know how he had known she was there, or how long he had been waiting, but she would be lying if she didn't say she was happy to see him...though also saddened. She felt that insistent tug on her heart once more, and realized that it was pulling her towards him, urging her to say goodbye.

Lee smiled at Austin as she neared him, a slight smile that didn't reach his green eyes, which were clouded over and dark like a stormy night without lightning. He watched her walk towards him with an intensity that nearly scared her, though it wasn't in the same fashion he had watched her to begin with, when they had still been strangers; it was as if he were attempting to memorize everything about her, rather than regarding her as a cat did a fish. Austin wondered, somewhat fearfully, if he somehow knew that she was going to leave, that this would be goodbye—

But not forever, surely. Both of them had work that needed to be done, but once they had their lives in order, then...

_What are you hoping for? _A soft voice, strangely familiar yet foreign, whispered to Austin as she stopped in front of Lee, waiting for him to speak.

He watched her for another moment with that intensity, green eyes growing in depth, before his smile widened a bit, appearing fragile and broken, and he asked her: "Will you walk with me?"

Austin nodded, and took his arm when he offered it, unable to say yes verbally.

That look on his face, in his eyes, it terrified her, because that hidden feeling was back, that sense that something was off, that there was something she needed to realize.

_What is it?_ The question burned brightly in her mind, but there was still no reply.

They walked past the Jeep, towards a covered building that Austin hadn't noticed was there before: a giant greenhouse. Questions raised in her mind as the door opened automatically, admitting them, and then Austin realized – this was part of the hospital, probably for the patients, a place for them to come when they could not go outside permanently, could not leave the confines of their beds for long; it was a sanctuary. A long hallway connected the hospital building and the greenhouse.

Lee quietly, gently led Austin to a bench, as if he were familiar with the garden that had blossomed before them, his hand in hers now. Austin found the large building to be an odd place to meet, the ceiling letting in quiet light, a mass amount of flowers blooming amidst manufactured creeks and easily tread pathways, but a part of her was thankful to see something beautiful in the otherwise relatively empty New Mexico town. Lee led the two of them to an empty wooden bench situated amongst fragrant rose bushes, and as they sat down, side by side, Austin noticed that no one else appeared to be amongst the bushes, trees, and flowers; they were entirely alone in the greenhouse.

Austin found this odd, but allowed the oddity to slip from her mind, because soon, she knew, it wouldn't matter anyway. Soon she would be on her flight, and this all would be behind her, for better or worse.

Austin didn't want to feel like she was giving up, but still...that something in the back of her mind told her to prepare herself for the inevitable, to be strong.

"Austin, there is something I feel that I must tell you," Lee began after a moment, looking down at their clasped hands, not meeting her eyes when she turned her head to gaze at him. There was intensity in his jaw that had not been there before, a far off look in those green orbs. "This charade cannot go on, and leave me with a clear conscience," he told her, and she did not miss the subtle twitch in his fingertips when he said it.

Her mouth dipped down into a frown as she waited for him to continue, remaining vigilant.

"I fear I have not been entirely honest with you. The entire time we have been...meeting, our relationship, it has been, well, to put it quite plainly, nothing more than a sham. When I saw that your relationship with your father was less than steady, I hoped to use you to usurp his focus, to prove myself a better candidate for research than him – or perhaps even to prove that he was too fragile at the moment to continue in his work, and that our superiors would then gift the study to me, instead," Lee spoke slowly, with practice, and Austin's eyebrows pulled together as tears tugged at her eyes, and pain formed in her chest. Still, she listened on: "It has come to my attention, however, that through our interactions I have come to care for you to a degree, and so I decided to allow the truth to be known," Lee told her, before he finally looked up at her, staring directly into her gaze, blinking once, twice. His expression was grim. "I do not ask for forgiveness or understanding, only that our meetings come to an end. You have become too much of a distraction for me."

Silence hung in the air after that, as Austin fought to breathe, to still her shaking hands. One part of her wanted to yell at him, to ask why, or better yet to leave – to leave everything, to leave this all behind, to forget about it. She could have risen to her feet, could have gotten on that airplane, could have left this relatively short piece of her life with no ending, but—

_No_.

That was what he wanted, she could see – a clean break, an easy break. She could see it in his eyes, somewhere deep in the green. It would be so much easier for them to simply part ways and to lick their wounds, without truly laying all of their cards on the table.

But would it be better for them, in the end?

Austin had done everything she could to leave her father and Jane on a good note, to be responsible with her feelings, and she wanted nothing less for Lee. If she were to run away, this conversation would haunt her afterwards, along with the knowledge that she had let things go unfinished, that she had not been entirely honest.

The idea of staying sitting there on that bench was painful, but it would be so, _so_ much more painful later on.

Austin was tired of running.

"No," when the word left her mouth, her voice was strong despite everything. "You're lying," she told him, and was surprised to see his mouth curve into an amused sort of grin that instead of annoying her simply warmed her heart.

She had never seen that grin before. Lee had grinned, of course, but this grin was something different, more intense; it seemed like he had been hiding it.

She knew that he was lying, that what he was saying wasn't the truth. She didn't know how, but it seemed that she could easily tell when Lee was lying now, as it were some ability she possessed; she didn't have to pay extra attention anymore in order to tell if he were being truthful, the knowledge just came to her, though she was extra vigilant anyway.

Lee laughed then, a low and dark sound that made Austin's heartbeat echo in her ears, before he shook his head and said: "I see I have underestimated you yet again," before he paused, and abruptly turned his gaze to the garden surrounding them, calling out in a commanding tone: "Now the question is, will you underestimate me just as severely?"

Austin opened her mouth to question as to whom he was speaking to, when she heard a subtle _click_ from somewhere nearby, and her blood ran cold. She had never liked weaponry, but she knew that sound—

Guns.

"Austin, step away from the man beside you," someone spoke, and Austin turned her gaze to see a tall, dark skinned man standing near a cluster of trees, flanked on each side by tense operatives, all carrying guns directed at Lee; one of them she recognized as Coulson, who watched her warily, worry evident in his gaze, though he kept his expression neutral.

Austin's mouth fell open as recognition came to her, and she questioned: "Director Fury?"

What was he doing there? She knew him through Tony, of course, the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. appearing at a few of Tony's functions, and she had heard Coulson mention him, as well. Director Fury had even introduced himself to their mother, wishing to know the woman who one of his best agents was interested in.

"Austin, please," Fury commanded, keeping his single-eyed gaze intently focused on Lee, who had not moved an inch, and whose grin hadn't disappeared...only grown.

Austin's heart beat in fear now as she stared back at the director, before she allowed her gaze to travel once more to Lee, who was already looking at her, something pleading in those green, green eyes. "Tell me, Austin, do you trust me?" he asked in a hushed voice, one black eyebrow rising, though there was no humor in his tone, even if that grin was still present.

"I want to," Austin replied, because it was true, her mouth feeling suddenly dry.

She had no idea why director Fury was there, why his men were pointing guns at Lee, why Lee had lied to her in the way he had, but obviously there was more going on here than she currently understood. But what? She wanted to know the truth, and she wanted to trust Lee to give it to her – trust that whatever friendship they had formed actually meant something to him; unlike he had wished her to believe.

The secret in the back of her mind felt closer than ever now, and she wanted to reach out and grasp it, to pull it into being. Her heart was tugging upon her again, once more pulling her towards Lee, as if there wasn't anywhere else she should be.

Lee's grin dimmed a bit, as did the life in his eyes, as he nodded. He seemed to be attempting to come towards acceptance – of what, she wasn't sure. But he appeared determined as he told her quietly: "Then tightly hold onto me, and do not let go. Close your eyes, and do not open them until I say so," the words a command as he cast an arrogant grin Fury's way, waiting for her to comply.

Austin did, almost without thinking about it. She wrapped her arms about him tightly, assaulted by a scent that was so distinct and heady she was sure she would never forget it. She interlocked her hands and then closed her eyes, whispering softly that she was ready.

Or was she?

Austin suddenly found herself hit by the strangest of sensations: she felt as if she were simultaneously being pulled apart and compressed, as if she were being gutted and yet handled gently. She shivered, viciously cold and yet burning with heat. She felt nausea hit her the same time as dizziness did. She wished for it to end, and yet never end, and then—

"You may open your eyes now, dearest," Lee said, his voice a rumble in his chest that she was pressed so tightly against, and with a large bit of effort Austin did just that.

Her eyes opened, the odd feelings left, and she saw over Lee's shoulder...the interior of her father's trailer.

Terror was the first emotion to make itself known, as Austin stumbled back from Lee and grabbed the nearest thing she could to defend herself: a lamp; the shade fell off. Lee made no motion to stop her, and a chuckle left his lips when she brandished the makeshift weapon, her eyes wide in fright, her body shaking.

Lee tilted his head to the side, and immediately Austin noticed that now he had an entirely different air, reminiscent of that grin she had seen. Whatever he had been hiding, it was unlocked now, free to be shown to the world. "I have just transported us across miles, to your father's pitiful excuse for an abode, and you hope to defeat with me with...that?" he asked mirthfully, indicating the lamp with his chin, obviously amused.

"It makes me feel better," Austin hissed, still shaking, though she was not entirely angry, but in awe and shock and uncertainty.

Lee shrugged, and somehow made the motion look princely. "Fair enough," he told her.

Austin's mind reeled, as she took in everything that had happened, all in a few short breaths.

He had just...transported them? Why had he brought them here – and, more pressing perhaps,_ how_ had Lee done it? Austin had closed her eyes and trusted him, and now she was beginning to regret that she had done either.

When she had hoped for Lee to tell her the truth, when she had placed her trust in him fully, even in the face of Fury and all safe logic, she had not expected this. This was beyond what she had hoped or feared, beyond the scope of anything she could have expected.

This was terrifying, something that should not have been possible, let alone actually happened. Austin had seen Tony fly as Iron-Man, had seen super-villains rise and fall, but this was...otherworldly. Lee had shuttled the two of them from one place to another, and he wasn't even breaking a sweat; in fact, he appeared all too pleased with himself – amused, even, as if this were nothing more than a joke.

Was it?

Suddenly, Austin felt very, very cold, the kind of coldness that promised she would never be warm again.

Silence stretched across the small trailer before suddenly the words tumbled out of Austin's mouth, little more than a whisper: "Who are you?" she asked darkly, eyes narrowing as her grip on the lamp tightened.

Not: "how did you do that", or even "where did you come from". No, there was something more important in the fact of who he was...and who he wasn't.

Lee was gone now, forever gone; perhaps he had never existed at all.

The figure who once was Lee allowed silence to reign for another moment, before his grin curved just a bit more, and he adopted a superior air that made Austin distinctly sick, placing her back into her old status of plaything. "You have been writing about me for days, and yet you still have failed to recognize me?" not-Lee questioned, the question rhetorical, and then it hit Austin, like a powerful wind—

Not Lee.

_Loki_.

How could she have been so blind? Or...how could she have allowed herself to believe his lies?

Maybe she hadn't believed them, and had been hiding from the truth for her own sake, not wishing to acknowledge it.

The hidden truth, something even beyond Lee being Loki, stirred once more in Austin's subconscious, but there was still a wall between it and her waking mind; it was not yet time.

"You really are Loki," the words tumbled from Austin's mouth, her tongue too loose, just as the lamp fell from her grip, thankfully missing her feet. The lamp clattered to the floor with a loud noise, but it did not break the tension. Not-Lee nodded, before suddenly a hazy green light appeared about him, and then vanished, leaving him wearing a different ensemble than before – black and green and golden and leather, not something a normal human would wear, not something that appeared as though it had come from her world. "I can't believe I'm so entirely stupid," she said, disbelieving.

Her father had been trying to warn her all this time! The books, the hints, everything had been offered to her to get her to see the truth, and she hadn't – or worse, she had ignored it.

But, perhaps more disturbing: what had Loki been planning all this time? Was she really nothing more than a plaything, a fish in a glass bowl?

Austin felt even sicker when thinking these things, weak, as if she suddenly might collapse.

He had probably even read her book – her book about him, both fictional and real – behind her back! Somehow the idea of that was more mortifying than not being intelligent enough to figure out who he really was.

Loki scoffed, frowning at her words. "Stupid is not a term I would use to describe you," he said, sounding nearly angry or frustrated for a moment, before he covered the emotion over with malice. "But yes, concerning who I am, you are correct. Surprise," that last word didn't sound like one he would use, but the way he sneered when saying it made Austin think he was making fun of something, or someone.

Thoughts raced through her mind, things she needed to know, but the next question she uttered was: "Why are you here?" as she tried to back away, running into her father's couch, wondering if she really wanted to know or not.

She should simply run – run from the trailer, run from Loki, run from her life. She should start entirely anew; forget everything from the last few days. She should forget she ever saw 'Lee' or the strange glowing cube. Maybe she should give up on her father, too, if he were somehow linked with the trickster.

But if Austin did any of these things, then she would fail to be who she was.

And so she waited for Loki's answer with bated breath, not moving an inch. A battle was playing in her mind, in her heart, in this room, and it began and ended with her steadfastness.

"It is really quite simple," when he saw that she was serious, that she wouldn't try and run (as if he wouldn't catch her!), Loki spoke, that air of superiority remaining, though there was something in his green gaze opposite it. He clasped his hands behind his back as he chuckled, nose turning up at her with distinct snobbishness. "It is my intention to rule this world, you see. Your father was simply a tool, a means to an end, as were you," he grinned then, and that grin caused the blood to drain from her face. "It was his idea to conceal the truth from you, or you would have been brought to misery long ago. I've enjoyed watching him run in circles in his attempts to protect you. Mortals can be quite entertaining," he said, another chuckle leaving him, deep and dark and dangerous.

As he spoke, Austin watched him with an intensity that even she was perhaps not aware of, keeping close vigilance upon his eyes, and what they displayed. When he finished speaking, she sighed, all of the tension (or most of it) disappearing as she told him plainly: "You're lying."

He wasn't lying about wanting to rule, and that scared her. He wasn't lying about her father being a tool, and that worried her. But he was lying about her part in everything.

He was lying.

Loki judged her expression, searching for signs that she was bluffing, before his vicious air disappeared, and his grin became a satisfied smile, as if he were somehow proud of her, though there lurked an edge of worry in his gaze. "Again, I underestimate your perception, it seems," he told her, and that was really all she needed to hear.

At least something had been real, though that didn't excuse everything else he had just told her, about her world and his plans for it. Austin could feel an argument building, for she did not intend to remain silent about these plans, but for now she simply wanted to rejoice in the fact that out of everything, his perception of her was not a lie—

Which meant that he had to have cared about her, just as she cared about him.

Without thinking, Austin rushed forward and threw her arms around the rogue god, somehow gracefully managing not to trip on the lamp, feeling Loki stiffen as she hugged him tightly, burying her face in the odd, leathery ensemble he wore. It was several minutes before he responded by placing his hands gently upon her waist, and Austin wondered then when was the last time he had truly been hugged.

A small laugh escaped her lips, though the situation was hardly humorous, the sound somewhat muffled by the trickster's clothing. "For the record, I am not okay with world domination or your using my father as a tool," she told him, though she did not move, did not let him go.

Loki responded with a chuckle of his own as he told her: "I assumed as much. Will you be slapping me, as Miss Foster did?" and abruptly Austin's mind provided another truth.

_Jane. _

"It was you, wasn't it – the crash, I mean?" Austin said as she pulled back slightly, looking up into Loki's green, green gaze, which she had never seen quite so closely before; those eyes were luminous, alien.

Something tentative broke, and Loki released her, stepping back, appearing guarded; she allowed him to step away, expecting it, though there was a sense of hurt as he recoiled. "Yes," he told her seriously, hopefully refraining from lying because he cared for her, not because he knew it was a useless venture. The darkness of certainty crept over him as he told her: "This story cannot have a happy ending, Austin – surely you understand that," his words final, without room for debate.

Austin opened her mouth to argue...before she abruptly shut it, because she did understand. He didn't need to explain.

Loki was correct – their story couldn't have a happy ending, not only because she disagreed with his plans, disagreed with dominion and using her father for his own ends, but because she was mortal.

Loki knew this, perhaps understanding it more than she did. Was that why he had tried so hard to push her away, to lie to her, to make her hate him? Is that what he wanted?

Austin didn't believe so, from the look in his eyes, but she also didn't believe that she could argue his point without being cruel.

She was mortal, and though a hundred years, if that, seemed impossibly long to her, far away, it was nothing compared to the lifespan of Loki's kind. If she were to argue his point, to argue that they could possibly pursue some form of a relationship, it would be out of selfishness on her part, because in the end, she wouldn't be the one left alone, with memories of something beautiful yet fleeting...

And Austin wasn't a cruel person; she couldn't force herself to be, even for something she truly desired such as this.

The words came slowly, and they shook when they left her mouth, but she said them all the same. "I...understand. I'm sure I can't change your mind about the other things, and even if I argue I can't imagine you'd see things my way, coming from such different places as we do. But," she took in a deep breath, and dared to tell him: "I'm going to do everything in my power to try and stop you from succeeding, Loki."

And she meant it. She had already planned to leave, before discovering the truth, to stay with Tony, so maybe she could help her friend prepare, plan for what was to come. Loki wasn't stupid enough to detail any of his plans, but the mere knowledge that he planned to overtake their world was something to build off of, as was his connection to her father; and she knew him so well, even after such a short time.

She wasn't giving up on him, not as a person, and she wasn't giving up on her world. She didn't want his plans to come to pass, but she didn't want to hurt him, either.

Something stirred inside of Austin when she thought this, but it died just as quickly as it awoke.

"I always welcome a challenge," Loki told her, grin returning, eyes gleaming, though he added with deathly seriousness: "However, I must ask of you one thing: that you do not place yourself in unnecessary danger. I am aware of where you plan to go, and contrary to belief it may be the safest place for you, surrounded by ingenuity. Come to think of it – it would be better if we were never to see one another again, as well," he said this quietly, barely whispered it.

Austin's heart constricted, but she bit her lip to hold back tears and nodded her assent.

She feared that Loki meant someone might come after her if they discovered her connection to him, but she pushed the thought aside, both confident that he would do all he could to prevent it, and that she and Tony could handle it if something were to arise.

A moment of silence hung in the air, and Austin felt moisture beginning to gather in her eyes, though she had fought it; it was the first sign of tears.

She swallowed thickly, not wishing to be seen crying again. She didn't want that to be his last image of her. "So, I suppose this is goodbye, then," she told him, not knowing what else to say.

If she were to tell him how much she cared for him, would that cause him even more pain in the future? She was sure that he knew, but...

Austin's tears disobeyed her, spilling over onto her cheeks, just as she tightened her hands into fists at her sides, willing the sadness to stop, to wait until she was alone to be unleashed.

Loki stepped forward before Austin realized it, her vision blurred by tears as it was, one long, pale finger brushing a tear away as he said solemnly: "So, I've caused tears once again," before he took her face in his hands, leaned down, and kissed her.

To say that the world melted away, or that time stopped, or any such related sentiment would be to disrespect the moment that Austin allowed herself to fully exist within when Loki's lips touched hers. It was a private moment, both a sorrowful and happy moment, and when it was over of course it was over too soon — and yet at the same time, both parties were content on a level that they hadn't expected.

Perhaps each of their hearts knew that this was not the end, even if, in that moment, their heads did not.

For a moment Austin did not dare to leave, to move, to breathe. She stared up into Loki's green gaze once he pulled away, and then she made her decision: she would tell him after all. She was sure he already knew, but words had always been her thing.

"I hope you know that I love you," when she said those words, they were perhaps the most honest words she had ever spoken, no hint of regret tingeing them.

Loki smiled slightly at her, a heartbreaking smile. "I am aware," he told her, and though he didn't repeat the words back, she could see them in that green gaze of his; perhaps, for such a habitual liar, words really didn't mean much at all.

Austin committed that look to memory, locking it away inside of her, before she said one more goodbye, turned on her heel, and walked out.

She did not look back, though she fiercely wished to. Her last memory of Loki was of him smiling slightly, with brilliant eyes that said what words could not.

* * *

><p>Erik Selvig arrived at his home some time later to find the door already open, a rogue god, fully dressed in his traditional Asgardian garbs, standing in the middle of what could be considered the trailer's living room, staring off into space, and looking as though he had been there quite a while. Erik was surprised to find that Loki did not greet him – sneer at him, taunt him, etc. – when he walked into the trailer; Loki didn't even move, didn't acknowledge him, though Erik was sure the trickster knew he was there. Sensing that something had changed, that some big event had taken place, Erik placed his things upon the floor before walking into his small kitchen to brew a cup off coffee that would (hopefully) help him through whatever was to come.<p>

It was in the kitchen that he found Austin's letter, and it was in the kitchen that he cried silently while reading it. For once, he did not lament over his faults, did not berate himself; instead he marveled at how understanding his daughter was, and how strong as a result. She had not learned that from him, and in that way she had surpassed him.

He guessed what had transpired all on his own.

"You knew how she would react – did Jane tell you? I'm sure if she did, she begged you to leave Austin be, but you were planning on that anyway. You manipulated her into leaving to protect her, didn't you?" when Erik spoke his voice was strong, perhaps the first time it had been strong when he'd spoken to Loki, and there was a twinge of gratefulness in it.

Finally, Austin would be safe (or, as safe as she could be in their dangerous world). And in the end, it had not been Erik who had sent her away, but Loki himself. Austin had made the choice, but he had helped.

Erik knew precisely what that meant, and maybe there was some part of him that was grateful for that, too.

Erik turned from the letter to look at Loki, who was paying attention to him now, expression superior and controlled once more. "Yes," he said simply, that single word exuding force.

"I think I may hate you a bit less now," Erik replied, a small, short laugh accompanying the confession, though Loki did not appear at all amused.

Of course. Erik was no Austin, but that was alright. Erik was finally at the point where he was less afraid of Loki, because Austin was out of the way now; he had nothing to be afraid for. He had to live with his choices, and do what he could. He would not stop trying to protect Austin, but he could not take his choices back, and that was alright.

Everything would turn out well in the end, wouldn't it?

Erik wasn't certain why, but he felt that it would. Perhaps working closely with the Tesseract had led him to hope for the seemingly impossible, because the seemingly impossible existed before his very eyes.

Loki smiled a small, cruel smile, and inwardly Erik sighed. "The feeling is not mutual, Doctor," he said, before adding: "Prepare yourself, there is still much still to be done," before abruptly he disappeared, leaving Erik alone once again.

Erik turned back towards the letter still held in his hand, and felt the warmth of his daughter's love exuding from it, as if it were magical.

Yes, everything would be alright in the end – but there was a long way to go before then.

* * *

><p><strong>Hello, everyone! I'm really sorry this took so long to get finished. I was going to update before New Year's, but unfortunately I ended up needing oral surgery, and recovery has taken a while. <strong>

**Thank you so much to everyone who has stuck with this story! I know it's been a long time coming, but here is the ending. I am uploading a prologue, so please look for that. **

**Best Wishes, **

**~Cross**


	11. Author's Note (fixed)

**Hello, everyone! **

**So, I originally was not going to continue with this series, and stop writing fanfics for a while, and originally I posted an epilogue here that detailed what would happen if I continued the series - but I've decided to finish writing it (yay!) so I took the Epilogue down. I'm sorry for the confusion. **

**To everyone who read the Epilogue: I will explain further in the first chapter of the sequel, but I am sorry for the confusion, and for the haitus, and everything connected. Taking a break and saying "no more fanfic" was really something I had to do, as crazy as it sounds, and it has made writing better for me. But, I am back now, and happy to be. Sorry once again, and thank you for reading this, and being supportive through my decision to "quit" - and hopefully through my decision to come back! You're all wonderful. **

**The story will continue in****_ "The Mystery of Mischief"_****, which you can find on my profile. Thank you to everyone who has stuck with this story through my years of writing it! Your support means so much, and I hope you'll read the other fics, as well. **

**~Cross**


End file.
